Food security can benefit from the development of selective methods to detect toxins. Fusaric acid is a mycotoxin produced by certain fungi found sporadically in agricultural commodities. Raman spectroscopy allows selective detection of analytes associated with certain spectral characteristics related to chemical structure. Furthermore, selective Raman detection can be enhanced and tuned through intermolecular interactions, such as Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS). Raman spectroscopy was carried out to compare the spectral properties of fusaric acid and structurally related analogs picolinic acid, picolinamide, and kojic acid. Conformational analysis was conducted using density functional theory at the B3LYP/6-311+G(2df,2p) level of theory. Aided by the density functional study, the vibrational modes were assigned and unique characteristics of the Raman spectra were identified between the analogs. This study provides a convenient label free approach to distinguish fusaric acid from other related analogs.

Structure-property study of the selective Raman spectroscopy detection of fusaric acid and analogs

251st National Meeting (2016)

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