Regular paper
Determination of ergosterol in organic dust by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-4347(94)00553-HGet rights and content

Abstract

A gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric method was developed for the determination of ergosterol in organic dust. Samples were hydrolyzed under alkaline conditions, and the hydrolysate was extracted, purified on a silica-gel column, and subjected to derivatization. The limit of detection of the trimethylsilyl ether derivative of ergosterol was approximately 10 pg and that of the tert.-butyldimethylsilyl ether derivative was approximately 20 pg (injected amounts). House dust contained 6–45 μg ergosterol/g and iar from a pig barn contained 0.2–0.3 ng ergosterol/ liter. The proposed method can be used as a complement or alternative to microscopy and culturing for measuring fungal biomass in air-borne organic dust.

References (21)

  • Z Mielniczuk et al.

    J. Microbiol. Methods

    (1993)
  • Z Mielniczuk et al.

    J. Chromatogr.

    (1992)
  • S Alugupalli et al.

    J. Microbiol. Methods

    (1992)
  • A Sonesson et al.

    J. Chromatogr.

    (1988)
  • J Miller et al.

    Int. Biodeterior.

    (1988)
  • M Walters et al.

    Appl. Environ. Microbiol.

    (1994)
  • A Fox et al.

    Appl. Environ. Microbiol.

    (1993)
  • A Fox et al.

    Indoor Air 93

    (1994)
  • L Seitz et al.

    Phytopathology

    (1979)
  • J Schnürer

    Appl. Environ. Microbiol.

    (1993)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (0)

View full text