Mouse toxicty of fungi of tobacco.

A bioassay for fungal toxins based on the intraperitoneal injection of test materials into mice was used to screen 976 cultures isolated from tobacco and grown in a high-protein baby cereal and also to determine whether samples of tobacco damaged by fungi are more toxic than samples of apparently sound tobacco. Of 236 fungal isolates from noncured tobacco, 79% were lethal when homogenized cultures of these isolates were tested. Forty-nine per cent of 740 fungi isolated from cured tobacco were lethal. Of the genera from which 30 or more isolates were tested, Epicoccum, Alternaria, and Penicillium had the highest percentage of toxic isolates from non-cured tobacco, whereas Epicoccum, Aspergillus, and Alternaria had the highest percentage from cured tobacco. Samples of tobacco naturally infected with brown spot, caused by Alternaria tenuis, did not have a significantly different LD(50) value after 48 hr than comparable disease-free samples. However, animals which died from doses near the LD(50) dose of tobacco infected with Alternaria generally died in 24 to 48 hr with signs associated with a depressant rather than a stimulant, such as nicotine, which caused death in 15 to 30 min. These signs were duplicated by injecting homogenized pure cultures of Alternaria. These studies, although inconclusive with regard to the effects of fungal contaminants on the quality or usability of tobacco, have developed evidence that suggests the advisability of a study on smoke or smoke condensates from moldy and nonmoldy tobacco.