Trilogy Adds Ergot Alkaloid Analysis to Testing Portfolio

Press Release: 10/26/2023

For Immediate Release

Trilogy Analytical Laboratory announces the addition Ergot Alkaloid analysis by LC-MS/MS to their portfolio of testing services. 

Trilogy Analytical Laboratory announces the addition of Ergot Alkaloid analysis to their laboratory service offerings. Ergot alkaloids are a class of alkaloid compounds produced by fungi belonging to the genus Claviceps. These fungi can infect cereal grains, such as rye, wheat, barley, and oats. The most notorious species is Claviceps purpurea, which is responsible for causing the disease known as ergotism.

On January 1st of 2022, the EU published maximum levels of ergot sclerotia and ergot alkaloids at the new maximum of 0.2-0.5 g/kg. To support import and export compliance a method was developed toquantitate ergot alkaloids in rye, wheat, barley, oats, finished feeds, feed ingredients and other matrices.The method developed utilizes liquid chromatography coupled with tandem quadrupole mass spectrometry.

With the assistance of Kendra Adams from Sciex, Trilogy Analytical Laboratory has developed an LC-MS/MS method for the detection of 13 ergot alkaloids including their corresponding –inine (s) epimers.Trilogy’s will now be able to offer a comprehensive testing package including ergotamine, ergocristine, ergosine, ergocornine, ergocryptine, ergometrine and including the inine-epimers ergotaminine,ergocristinine, ergosinine, ergocorninine, ergocryptinine, and ergometrinine. Dihydroergocristine and ergovaline will also be offered as part of a full ergot alkaloid screen.

Trilogy Analytical Laboratory develops industry leading methodology and performs thousands ofanalyses every day for mycotoxins, biogenic amines, veterinary drug residues and mycotoxin bindingstudies. In addition to providing high quality laboratory testing, Trilogy provides a complimentary line oflaboratory tools for the use on-site analysis such as matrix-based quality control materials, liquid andinsitu analytical standards, solid phase extraction columns for purification, and laboratory extractiontools. The addition of this LC-MS/MS developed ergot alkaloid method will present new opportunitiesfor growth into product sectors such as ergot alkaloid quality control materials to be used in combinationwith on-site ergot alkaloid test kits for test method verification of competency as well as ergot alkaloidpurification with solid phase extraction columns.

About Trilogy

Trilogy is a food and feed safety laboratory specializing in mycotoxins, mycotoxin binder analysis, biogenic amines and animal drug residue testing. Trilogy Analytical Laboratory opened its doors in 1999 when its founders recognized a need in the mycotoxin industry for quick result turn-around utilizing reliable reference methods provided in an analytical setting. One of the main pillars of Trilogy’s strategy is to operate using a comprehensive quality program that we can rely on to ensure performance parameters are met every single time. From this philosophy the Trilogy line of quality products was born with the mycotoxin industry in mind.