Trichothecenes as mycotoxins

chartarum, which are then ingested via airborne dust samples, has been associated with adverse health effects of damp rooms. 

After a wet summer in 1972 corn in parts of the USA was infected with 

graminearum. Reports soon followed that pigs refused to eat this com or had vomited after eating a small amount. The emetic principle, vomitoxin, was identified as 3,7,15-trihydroxy-12,13-epoxytrichothec-9-en-8-one (9.6). 

Trichothecin (9.7), the first of the trichothecenes to be isolated, was described as an anti-fungal metabolite of the fungus Trichothecium roseum in 1949. This fungus produces a pink rot on apples and trichothecin has been associated with the bitter taste of infected fruit. The correct structure of trichothecin embodying its 12,13-epoxide was finally established in 1962 as a result of an inter-relationship with trichodermol. The details of this are described in Chapter 5. 

Trichothecenes are characteristic metabolites of Fusarium species and have been isolated from species belonging to ten of the twelve sections of the genus Fusarium as classified by Booth. The majority contain a 12,13-epoxide and a C-9 C-10 double bond and occur with various combinations of additional oxygen substituents at positions C-3, C-4, C-7, C-8 and C-15. Many of the hydroxyl groups are esterified and there are several macrocyclic esters known as the verrucarins and roridins in which the esters link C-4 and C-15. 

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