Aqueous two-phase system for citrinin extraction from fermentation broth

•Aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) is original and pioneer for citrinin extraction.•A green extraction process, ATPS (PEG/phosphate salts), for mycotoxin.•PRDC-clean technology continuous extraction process for citrinin analysis.•ATPS and PRDC are efficient extraction alternatives for citrinin, yield of 98.4%.

Aqueous two-phase systems (ATPSs) were investigated for effective extraction of citrinin from Penicillium citrinum fermentation broth. The citrinin partitioning behaviour in each ATPS (polyethylene glycol–phosphate salts) was evaluated in terms of the following parameters: polyethylene glycol (PEG) molecular weight, pH and tie line length. The target molecule (citrinin) presented high affinity to the PEG rich phase in most of the experiments. The best recovery yield (98.4%) was obtained using PEG 4000 (20% w/w)/phosphate salt (16.7% w/w), pH 3.4 at room temperature (28–30 °C), but the best citrinin partitioning (36.41) was observed at pH 5.7 using the same ATPS. Continuous citrinin extraction studies were performed using the fermentation broth and this ATPS in a perforated rotating disc contactor (PRDC). Recovery up to 98.44% supports the possible use of this system on a laboratory scale.