Effect of the incubation conditions on the production of patulin by Penicillium griseofulvum isolated from wheat.

Sixty-four wheat samples from Spanish flour factories were screened for patulin and patulin-producing moulds. None of them was found to contain any patulin, whereas samples experimentally contaminated with this toxin proved it to be highly unstable. On the other hand, Penicillium griseofulvum was the only in vitro patulin-producing species found (19 samples). Mould growth in the samples was investigated by using yeast-sucrose medium (YES) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to measure the amounts of toxin produced during 40 day's incubation at 20 and 28 degrees C. The highest yield rate of patulin was obtained between the 20th and 30th day of incubation; such a rate, however, was very low throughout the vigorous growth phase, during the first 20 days of incubation. The more appropriate temperature for incubation and patulin production was 28 degrees C. We also investigated the influence of other incubation conditions in the yield and found stationary dark cultures to be more efficient that shaken or fermentation cultures in YES medium. The best patulin yield achieved was 11.9 mg in the culture broth and 6.3 mg in the mycelium from 100 ml of medium.