Immunochemical Method for Citrinin

Citrinin is a toxic metabolite produced by several species of Aspergillus and Penicillium (), and was originally isolated as an experimental antibiotic from fermentation cultures of Penicillium citrinum in 1931 (). Even today, liquid cultures of toxigenic Penicillia, such as P. citrinum NRRL-5907 or NRRL-1471, are still the most economical sources for fractional-gram quantities of nearly pure citrinin. A single precipitation from hot ethanol as described (2) affords crystalline material which is homogeneous when assayed by fluorescence high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).