Occurrence of Ergot Alkaloids in Barley and Wheat from Algeria Carbonell Rozas, Laura Khelifa Mahdjoubi, Choukri Arroyo Manzanares, Natalia García Campaña, Ana María Gámiz Gracia, Laura Ergot alkaloids Cereals Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry Exposure assessment Algeria The natural occurrence of six major ergot alkaloids, ergometrine, ergosine, ergotamine, ergocornine, ergokryptine and ergocristine, as well as their corresponding epimers, were investigated in 60 cereal samples (barley and wheat) from Algeria. Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) and a QuEChERS extraction method were used for sample analysis. The results revealed that 12 out of 60 samples (20%) were contaminated with ergot alkaloids. Wheat was the most contaminated matrix, with an incidence of 26.7% (8 out of 30 samples). The concentration of total ergot alkaloids ranged from 17.8 to 53.9 µg/kg for barley and from 3.66 to 76.0 µg/kg for wheat samples. Ergosine, ergokryptine and ergocristine showed the highest incidences in wheat, while ergometrine was the most common ergot in barley. 2021-05-07T11:31:33Z 2021-05-07T11:31:33Z 2021 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Carbonell-Rozas, L.; Mahdjoubi, C.K.; ArroyoManzanares, N.; García-Campaña, A.M.; Gámiz-Gracia, L. Occurrence of Ergot Alkaloids in Barley and Wheat from Algeria. Toxins 2021, 13, 316. https://doi.org/10.3390/ toxins13050316 http://hdl.handle.net/10481/68395 10.3390/ toxins13050316 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución 3.0 España MDPI