Wheat coleoptile and chick bioassays indicate that the biological activity of orlandin in plants, and of kotanin in chicks, is intimately associated with the 7,7' hydroxyl groups. Methylation of the 7,7' hydroxyl groups caused the molecule to be inactive in the coleoptile assay but increased toxicity to chicks. Two points remain to be elucidated. First, does kotanin occur in A. niger as does orlandin, and second, is orlandin a biosynthetic precursor to desmethylkotanin and kotanin? Neither of these points has been resolved here. But more importantly the bicoumarin structure offers an interesting model to determine functional group activity in plant and animal bioassays. Epichloe typhina, isolated from toxic K-31 tall fescue grass, was shown to produce ergot alkaloids in vitro. Ergosine, ergosinine, and chanoclavine I were isolated and identified by comparison with authentic standards with regard to thin-layer chromatography, ultraviolet absorption, and low-resolution mass spectra analyses. Total alkaloid production, colorimetrically determined as ergonovine maleate, was 5.5 mg/L for 28-day-old cultures. This is the first report of a fungus outside the genera of Clauiceps and Balansia capable of producing alkaloids that are N-peptide-substituted amides of lysergic acid. [14C]Aflatoxin B1 was used to trace the destruction of aflatoxin during ammoniation. "Spiked" meal (meal containing added [14C]aflatoxin) was ammoniated at 75 "C, 35 psig, for 30 min in a laboratory reactor, and the distribution of label was measured in subsequent fractions. Only 45-50% of the activity was detected in the ammoniated meal after initial air-drying, 8% was detected in the humins remaining after acid hydrolysis, 4-6% was associated with the protein, and 33-36% was associated with the nonprotein residue. This residue contained all of the unreacted aflatoxin B1, which accounted for 0.3% of the total activity. Some activity was detected in volatiles swept from the reaction vessel after the ammoniation treatment.