Ergot alkaloids are
mycotoxins which are produced among fungi in the family Clavicipitaceae.
Poisoning with
ergot alkaloids is an important veterinary problem in animal husbandry and has recently also been recognised in wild animals. While the
poisoning syndrome observed in domestic animals such as cattle, horses and sheep is usually caused by endophyte-infected grass, the recently observed
ergotism among Norwegian cervids is probably due to
infection of wild grasses with Claviceps. Mass spectrometry is today the method of choice for the rapid qualitative and quantitative determination of many natural compounds. This study uses tandem quadrupole mass spectrometry as well as ion trap mass spectrometry in connection with electrospray(+) ionisation for the quantification, screening and fragmentation of
ergot alkaloids in extracts from Claviceps sclerotia that had been picked from wild grasses from several locations in Norway.
Ergotamine,
ergovaline,
ergonovine and
ergocryptine were available as standards and were quantified in the extracts, while ergocrystine,
ergocornine, ergonine/
ergosine,
lysergic acid and
lysergol were identified on the basis of their molecular weights and semi-quantified. Ergocrystine dominated the
alkaloid spectrum of most extracts. Levels of the quantified
alkaloids were in the range 0.2-9300 microg/g. Several unknown
ergot alkaloids were found in the extracts. MS(n) experiments identified some as simple
lysergic acid amide derivatives, while othes are probably related to ergocrystine and
ergocryptine by
dehydration, dehydrogenation and/or amino acid substitution at R(1) of the
peptide moiety.