Skip to main content
. 2023 Apr 5;32(9):1133–1158. doi: 10.1007/s10068-023-01295-0

Table 3.

Occurrence of alkaloids in food

Alkaloids Food Alkaloid concentration (mg/kg) References
Mean (Minimum – Maximum)
Ergot Alkaloids Rye meals and rye grains 0.588 (max. 3.28) Lauber et al., (2005)
Rye Products 0.119 (max. 0.118) Muller et al., (2009)
Rye-based cereal 0.4872 (max. 0.340) Crews et al., (2009)
Rye flour 0.213 (max. 1.063) Reinhold and Reinhardt, (2011)
Wheat 0.444 (0.0103–0.975) Topi et al., (2017)
Glycoalkaloids Potatoes 405.55 (1.3—352.6) Freidman et al., (2003)
Potatoes 81.05 (33.69—167.79) Urban et al., (2018)

Potatoes

Tomatoes

410.35 (94.40—750.0)

(42—1498) dehydrotomatine

(521—16,285) α-tomatine

Musita et al., (2020)

Kozukue et al., (2004)

Eggplant (10.00—221.00) Sanchez-Mata et al., (2010)

Purine

Alkaloids

Beverage (1 × 10–6—350) Bispo et al., (2002)
Leaves, branches and fruits (400—8600) Borre et al., (2010)
Teas and coffees (< 0.06—771.40) Aragao et al., (2005)
Teas, coffees, energy drinks, chocolates 80—18,740 Sanchez, (2017)
Teas ND—11,064 (ND—17,177.8) Baek et al., (2022)
Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids Tea, herbal drugs and honey 0.05—1.86 (< LOD—5.647) tea Bodi et al., (2014)
ND—0.45 (< LOD—3.098) herbal drugs
0.006—0.015 (0.0003—0.234) honey
Herbal teas and medicines (< LOQ—7.88) Chen et al., (2019)
(0.3—1.12)

Wheat flour

Honey and bee pollen

(0.045—5.4)

0.026 (0.001—0.267)

Kakar et al., (2010)

Dubecke et al., (2011)

1.846 (0.011—37.855)
Pollen products 5.17 (1.08—16.35) Kempf et al., (2010)
Quinolizidine Alkaloids Lupin (ND—1664) Gresta et al., (2010)

Lupin flours,

Lupin-based ingredients and food

(8.45—1247) Resta et al., (2008)
(< LOQ—86.5)
(< LOQ—56.3)
Lupin seed crops (130 -52,380) Magalhães et al., (2017)
Lupin species (20—21,920) Cortes  et al., (2005)
(ND—5670)
(10—27,580)
Lupin seeds and foods (202—19,800) bitter Reinhard et al., (2006)
(44—2120) sweet

Tropane

Alkaloids

Buckwheat (ND—1283) Caligiani et al., (2011)
Teas and herbal teas (0.005—4.34) Romera-Torres et al., (2018)
Cerealsand Solanaceae seeds (0.003—1.847) Marin-Saez et al., (2017)
Cereals (ND—0.0096) Basle et al., (2020)
Cereal-based food 0.00037—0.00304 (max. 0.0808) Mulder et al., (2015)