High-Performance Liquid Chromatography in the Analysis of Mycotoxins

The continuous improvement of adsorbents' quality and performance of the chromatographic equipment for their maxima] adaptation to the requirements of the column chromatography theory resulted in the creation of a qualitatively new analytic technique - high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). During the last 10-12 years HPLC has been broadly used in the analysis of mycotoxins in foodstuffs and fodder. Compared with thin-layer chromatography (TLC), which is commonly used in routine mycotoxin analysis, HPLC is characterized by such advantages as adequate partition from interfering accompanying substances in highly efficient chromatographic columns, fast rate of partition, quantitation reproducibility of separated substances by means of flow detectors, possibility of injecting rather large sample volumes into a chromatographic system and simplicity of automation in a considerable number of analytic series. HPLC has a drawback: higher cost of basic equipment and higher requirements to the qualification of analysts.