Predicted Aflatoxin B1 Increase in Europe Due to Climate Change: Actions and Reactions at Global Level

Climate change (CC) is predicted to increase the risk of aflatoxin (AF) contamination in maize, as highlighted by a project supported by EFSA in 2009. We performed a comprehensive literature search using the Scopus search engine to extract peer-reviewed studies citing this study. A total of 224 papers were identified after step I filtering (187 + 37), while step II filtering identified 25 of these papers for quantitative analysis. The unselected papers (199) were categorized as "actions" because they provided a sounding board for the expected impact of CC on AFB1 contamination, without adding new data on the topic. The remaining papers were considered as "reactions" of the scientific community because they went a step further in their data and ideas. Interesting statements taken from the "reactions" could be summarized with the following keywords: Chain and multi-actor approach, intersectoral and multidisciplinary, resilience, human and animal health, and global vision. In addition, fields meriting increased research efforts were summarized as the improvement of predictive modeling; extension to different crops and geographic areas; and the impact of CC on fungi and mycotoxin co-occurrence, both in crops and their value chains, up to consumers.

GC/MS analysis of Juniperus procera extract and its activity with silver nanoparticles against Aspergillus flavus growth and aflatoxins production

From ancient to currently, it has been hard to prevent the exposure to mycotoxigenic fungi, due to these fungi occurs naturally in the environment. This paper reports the antifungal activities of the Juniperus procera stem extract with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) against Aspergillus flavus growth and aflatoxins production. Numerous constituents of J. procera extract were detected by GC/MS analysis. Methanolic extract at 30, 60 and 90 mg/mL inhibited the growth of A. flavus, where the inhibition reached to 50.86, 51.60 and 52.58 %. respectively while weak inhibition was observed using the aqueous extract. Growth of A. flavus was reduced using AgNPs, the highest inhibition 39.31 % was recorded at 100 ppm AgNPs. Synergistic activity was observed by applying 50 ppm of AgNPs with aqueous and methanolic extracts of J. procera . A reduction in aflatoxin B2 and G2 synthesis was observed using different concentrations of methanolic stems extract of J. procera particularly with AgNPs.

Separation and Purification of Aflatoxins by Centrifugal Partition Chromatography

Aflatoxins are mycotoxins that are produced by several species of filamentous fungi. In the European Union, the concentration limits for this group of mycotoxins in food and feed products are very low (on the order of parts per billion). Thus, relatively high amounts of these substances in their pure forms are required as reference standards. Chromatographic techniques based on solid stationary phases are generally used to purify these molecules; however, liquid–liquid chromatographic separations may be a promising alternative. Therefore, this study proposes a liquid–liquid chromatographic method for the separation of four aflatoxins and impurities. To optimise the method, numerous biphasic solvent systems (chloroform-, acetone- and acetic acid-based systems) were tested and evaluated in terms of their effectiveness at partitioning aflatoxins; the toluene/acetic acid/water (30:24:50, v/v/v/%) system was found to be the most efficient for application in centrifugal partition chromatographic instrument. Using liquid–liquid instrumental separation, the four aflatoxins, namely B₁ (400 mg), B₂ (34 mg), G₁ (817 mg) and G₂ (100 mg), were successfully isolated with 96.3%–98.2% purity from 4.5 L of Aspergillus parasiticus fermented material in a 250 mL centrifugal partition chromatography column. The identities and purities of the purified components were confirmed, and the performance parameters of each separation step and the whole procedure was determined. The developed method could be effectively used to purify aflatoxins for analytical applications.