Fungi ergot

Claviceps and other fungi-producing ergot alkaloids... 

There are significant differences between cereal species in their susceptibility to mycotoxin-producing fungi and/or my cotoxin contamination levels. For example, wheat is generally more frequently contaminated with DON than rye (Tanaka et al., 1988 Lepschy et al., 1989 Doll et al., 2002), but rye usually has higher levels of ergot contamination than wheat. 

Mycotoxins of most interest are those found in human food or in the feed of domestic animals. They include the ergot alkaloids produced by Claviceps sp aflatoxins and related compounds produced by Aspergillus sp and the tricothecenes produced by several genera of fungi imperfecti, primarily Fusarium sp. 

The isolation of therapeutically active compounds from metabolic products of fungi is no longer regarded as an extraordinary event. Antibiotics constitute excellent examples of the results produced by modern biochemical research. The fungus ergot has been employed in medicine for centuries, and the quest for its active principles commenced nearly 150 years ago. 

The majority of alkaloids produced from ergot fungi are peptides of lysergic acid. Upon hydrolysis they decompose to give lysergic acid, two... 

Trehalose or mycose is found in ergot, Boletus edulis, the Oriental Trehala and various other fungi. 

Order 6.— Pyrenomycetales, the mildews and black fungi common as superficial parasites on various parts of plants. To the black fungi division of this order the Ergot fungus, Claviceps purpurea belongs. 

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