Key impediments to increased corn yield and quality in the southeastern US coastal plain region are damage by ear-feeding insects and aflatoxin contamination caused by infection of Aspergillus flavus. Key ear-feeding insects are corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea, fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda, maize weevil, Sitophilus zeamais, and brown stink bug, Euschistus servus. In 2006 and 2007, aflatox...

The present investigation was an attempt to evaluate the ameliorative effect of curcumin on aflatoxin-induced changes in activities of succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) and adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) in liver and kidney of mice. Aflatoxin was obtained by growing Aspergillus parasiticus in SMKY liquid medium. Pure curcumin (97% purity) was purchased from Hi-Media Laboratories Pvt. Ltd., Mumba...

Background Mycotoxins are natural toxins, produced by several fungal species and are associated with morbidity or even mortality in animals, plants, and humans. In this study, 120 samples of herbs and spices in both bulk and packaged forms were prepared in order to measure aflatoxin level in different regions of Iran. Methods The aflatoxin was extracted during Mar to May 2015, using 80% metha...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Aflatoxin M1, in milk and dairy products, is classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as human carcinogens (class 2B). The aim of this study was to evaluate aflatoxin M1 contamination level in dairy products from Iranshahr city, Iran, using ELISA technique. MATERIALS AND METHODS In our study, 87 samples of milk, white cheese, yoghurt, and butter wer...

The distribution of aflatoxin concentration has been measured by sampling 19 process streams ranging from 1 to 1000 nuts/sample. The 19 streams comprise substantially the entire sorted product of one producer for crop year 1992. Similar results were obtained by another producer for 1993. The fraction of total aflatoxin accounted for by each process stream was computed. It was concluded that 90%...

Aflatoxin contamination is a major economic and food safety concern for the peanut industry that largely could be mitigated by genetic resistance. To screen peanut for aflatoxin resistance, ten genotypes were infected with a green fluorescent protein (GFP)-expressing Aspergillus flavus strain. Percentages of fungal infected area and fungal GFP signal intensity were documented by visual ratings ...

The aflatoxin B1 degrading abilities of two different ruminants were compared in this study. One set of experiments evaluated the aflatoxin B1 degradation ability of different rumen fluid donors (steers vs. goats) as well as the rumen fluid filtration method (cheese cloth filtered vs. 0.45 microm Millipore) in a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement. Additional studies examined aflatoxin B1 degradation b...

To search for an alternative to using protein conjugated aflatoxin as a coating antigen in aflatoxin detection by an ELISA method, a random-8-peptide library was constructed and used as a source of peptides that mimic aflatoxins (termed as mimotopes). Five mimotope peptides were obtained by panning-elution from the library and were successfully used in an indirect competitive ELISA for analyzin...

This paper presents an overview of reports of aflatoxin contamination in various foods and products, which have been carried out in Thailand between 1967-2001. Thirteen available international and local reports (n=3,206 samples) focused on type of food, season and geographic areas, and have been collected for statistical analysis. The accumulated data showed 1,248 (38.9%) of 3,206 samples were ...

Aflatoxins, fungal toxins produced by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus in a variety of food crops, are well known as potent human hepatocarcinogens. Relatively less highlighted in the literature is the association between aflatoxin and growth impairment in children. Foodborne aflatoxin exposure, especially through maize and groundnuts, is common in much of Africa and Asia--areas w...