The brine shrimp (Artemia salina) bioassay: A simple method to assess the toxicity of fumonisin mycotoxins.

Several fumonisin mycotoxins were compared for their toxicity using the brine shrimp (Artemia salina) bioassay. Of the substances tested, fumonisin FB1 emerged to be the most toxic whereas its N-carboxymethyl analogue 1 was 100-fold less effective. The hydrolysed fumonisins showed a four- to six-fold reduced toxicity compared to FB1. N-Palmitoyl-HFB1 2 had a higher LC50 value than its precursor HFB1. The brine shrimp assay proved to be a convenient and rapid system for toxicity assessment of this group of mycotoxins. The detailed results have been published recently (1).