# Winter-grain mould (Fusarium sporotrichioides)

**Fusarium sporotrichioides* and relatives*

**Known today as.** Pink and white moulds of grain left in the field over winter.

Kind: Fungus  
Poisoning: Mycotoxins of the moulds (https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/poisons/mycotoxin)  
Deadly: yes

> **Deadly.** 

## What was it used for?

None.

## What does modern science say?

Its T-2 toxin destroys the bone marrow and the lining of the gut.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **T-2 toxin**: a trichothecene
- **deoxynivalenol**: vomitoxin
- **fumonisin B1**: 
- **zearalenone**: an oestrogen mimic

**Mechanism.** The trichothecenes block protein synthesis; fumonisins disrupt sphingolipid metabolism, and the fungus that makes them was the commonest in the home-grown maize of a South African region with much oesophageal cancer.

**Dose.** Overwintered grain in Orenburg in the 1940s killed, by one report, a tenth of the population of the area.

**Standing.** The US Food and Drug Administration restricts deoxynivalenol to 1 part per million; the WHO and the European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Food have set a tolerable daily intake for the fumonisins.

## What lore surrounds it?

In the hunger of the Second World War, when the harvest was delayed, people in the Orenburg region of the Soviet Union ate grain that had lain in the fields over winter; many thousands died of alimentary toxic aleukia.

## Sources

- Wikipedia contributors. “Fusarium sporotrichioides.” *Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia*. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusarium_sporotrichioides (read 2 October 2026).
- Wikipedia contributors. “Alimentary toxic aleukia.” *Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia*. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alimentary_toxic_aleukia (read 2 October 2026).
- Wikipedia contributors. “T-2 mycotoxin.” *Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia*. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-2_mycotoxin (read 2 October 2026).
- Wikipedia contributors. “Vomitoxin.” *Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia*. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vomitoxin (read 2 October 2026).
- Marasas, W. F. O. (2001). “Discovery and occurrence of the fumonisins: a historical perspective.” *Environmental Health Perspectives* 109.

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*Winter-grain mould.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-03. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/fusarium

Historical description, not medical advice.