Toxinogenicity of heat-resistant fungi detected by a bio-assay.

The ciliostatic activity of exo- and endometabolites of 125 (100%) heat-resistant fungal isolates was evaluated in vitro by a bioassay on tracheal tissue cultures of 1 day old chicks. For 11 (9%) of the isolates investigated chloroform-extractable secondary metabolites were detected in the medium. For 29 (23%) they were detected in mycelium and spores and for 25 (20%) they were detected in the medium, mycelium and spores at the same time. Especially Dichotomomyces cejpii and Eupenicillium baarnense strains displayed ciliostatic activity. Extracts of Gilmaniella humicola, Talaromyces avellaneus and Talaromyces bacillisporus isolates were not found ciliostatic in our experiment. The chloroform-extractable metabolites of Neosartorya fischeri ATCC 96469 and T. avellaneus ATCC 96465 strains had no ciliostatic activity, either, but G. humicola ATCC 96467 produced ciliostatic metabolites detected in the medium, the mycelia and the spores.