Changes in TSNA contents during tobacco storage and the effect of temperature and nitrate level on TSNA formation.

Samples of burley, sun-cured, and flue-cured tobacco from the main producing areas of relevant tobacco types in China were collected to study the changes in tobacco-specific nitrosamine (TSNA) contents during storage and to investigate the effect of storage temperature and tobacco nitrate level on TSNA formation of cured tobacco. Contents of TSNAs in burley and sun-cured tobacco increased substantially during 1 year under natural storage environment, with total TSNA content increasing about 215% for both tobacco types. The most rapid increase occurred during the high temperature season.

Electrospray[+] tandem quadrupole mass spectrometry in the elucidation of ergot alkaloids chromatographed by HPLC: screening of grass or forage samples for novel toxic compounds.

Ergot alkaloids are mycotoxins generated by grass and grain pathogens such as Claviceps, for example. Ergot alkaloid-poisoning syndromes, such as tall fescue toxicosis from endophyte-infected tall fescue grass, are important veterinary problems for cattle, horses, sheep, pigs and chickens, with consequent impact on food, meat and dairy industries. Damage to livestock is of the order of a billion dollars a year in the United States alone.

Fragmentation patterns of selected ergot alkaloids by electrospray ionization tandem quadrupole mass spectrometry.

Tall fescue toxicosis and other maladies in livestock result from the ingestion of vasoconstrictive ergot alkaloids produced by fungal endophytes associated symbiotically with the grass. In order to facilitate future analyses of grass extracts considered responsible for outbreak of related livestock diseases, we examined the electrospray ionization mass spectra of specific ergot alkaloids under conditions that permit protonation. Our purposes were both to record the spectra with interpretation of mechanisms of fragmentation and to derive commonalities that would allow the prediction of mass spectra of related compounds for which standards were not readily available.