Aflatoxins, metabolites of the fungi Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus, are frequent contaminants of a number of staple foods, particularly maize and ground nuts, in subsistence farming communities in tropical and sub-tropical climates in sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Asia and parts of South America. Contamination of foods occurs during growth and as a result of storage in deficient ...

BACKGROUND Due to the high toxicity of aflatoxin and its effects on public health, determination of aflatoxin level in Wheat flour samples in the Golestan province, north of Iran was investigated. To examine the effect of seasonal changes, summer and winter sampling was performed with standard sampling methods. METHODS A total of 200 flour samples were collected from 25 factories. HPLC method...

The covalent binding of the hepatocarcinogen aflatoxin B1 by rat liver microsomes to calf thymus DNA resulted in a binding level equal to one aflatoxin residue per 60 DNA nucleotides. An aflatoxin derivative-guanine adduct was efficiently liberated from DNA with formic acid. Analytical reversed-phase high-pressure liquid chromatography of the DNA hydrolysate revealed that approximately 90% of t...

Stored and cooked samples of pearl millet (Pennesetum typhoides), which is regularly consumed as food by the Paharia tribe in the hilly regions of Santhal Pargana, Bihar State, India, that were harvested in January 1989 were analyzed for mold flora, natural occurrence of Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus, and incidence and levels of aflatoxin B1. Of the 22 fungal species isolated, A. flavus...

in this investigation aflatoxin contamination of eighty different iranian white cheeses were determined by t.l.c. method. the result of this study showed that, 97.5% of the samples contained aflatoxin m1 & m2 which are transferred from milk. as far as direct contamination, 30% of the samples contained aflatoxin b1, g1, g2, from which 2.5% contained aflatoxin b1, 5% contained aflatoxin b2, 20% c...

A new blocked mutant of Aspergillus parasiticus produces no detectable aflatoxin B1, but accumulates several polyhydroxyanthraquinones. One of these pigments was identified as averantin. This is the first report of its formation by A. parasiticus. Radiotracer studies with [14C]averantin showed that 15.3% of label from averantin was incorporated into aflatoxin B1. This incorporation was blocked ...

A method has been developed to determine the presence of aflatoxin B1 in the urine of animals (including humans) by utilizing commercial immunochemical kits that can be used in the field. Urine is treated with diatomaceous earth and filtered to clarify the sample; 2-3 ppb aflatoxin B1, corresponding to about 300 ppb in the ingested feed/food, can be detected in the filtered urine without furthe...

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...

Oltipraz [5-(2-pyrazinyl)-4-methyl-1,2-dithiole-3-thione] protects against aflatoxin B1-induced hepatocarcinogenesis in rats when fed before and during carcinogen exposure; however, such an exposure-chemoprotection intervention paradigm is not directly relevant to most human populations. To model and assess the possible efficacy of short term interventions targeted at individuals at risk for su...

BACKGROUND Aflatoxins are serious hazard to poultry industry and human health. Broiler chickens fed on aflatoxin contaminated feed develop various abnormal signs and behavior including less attraction toward feed, abnormal faeces consistency, growth retardation, dirty and ruffled feather, abnormal organs size and weight and blood serum biochemistry. Therefore the study was aimed to detoxify afl...