Volatile metabolites from indoor molds grown on media containing wood constituents.

Since volatile mold metabolites are used for the detection of mold growth in buildings, it was interesting to determine whether different indoor mold species show different affinity for the major components of wood, a common building material. Growth and volatile metabolites were studied when Aspergillus versicolor, Penicillium chrysogenum, and P. palitans were grown on laboratory substrates containing the major wood constituents cellulose, xylan and lignin. Microbial volatile organic compounds (MVOCs) were characterized by thermal desorption/gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy. Growth and volatile metabolites varied considerably and there appeared to be complementary substrate specificities for P. chrysogenum, and P. palitans grown on cellulose and xylan. The failure of A. versicolor to produce characteristic MVOCs when grown on media containing wood constituents suggests that systems using volatile metabolites to detect microbial growth in buildings may be fundamentally unreliable for the detection of this species.