Hey guys,

 

I'm currently working on a project that is looking at cyanotoxins in soil after irrigation with contaminated waters, and I need a way to test the concentration of cyanotoxins in the soil. With research I have identified methods for testing cyanotoxins in liquid samples (microscopic analysis, ELISA) as well as method for extracting cyanobacteria from the soil (centrifuging with ethanol) however what I cannot find any mention of is a way to extract cyanotoxins from the soil so I can use the aforementioned liquid testing methods. Can any one help me with this? Even just direction to a good source or paper would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks

The extraction method would depend on the type of the toxin, microcystin is a cycyclic heptapeptide, for example, whereas saxitoxin is a alkaloid. Often, liquid extraction is the simplest way for soil samples to extract compounds, but obviously each group would have a different preferred buffer. For microcystin I think I remember vaguely something like phosphate and EDTA, but I would check the lit looking for soil extraction of each class separately.