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The marine soft corals Sarcophyton trocheliophorum crude extracts possessed antimicrobial activity towards pathogenic bacterial strains, i.e. Bacillus cereus, Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Bioassay-guided fractionation indicated that the antimicrobial effect was due to the presence of terpenoid bioactive derivatives. Further biological assays of the n-hexane fractions were carried out using turbidity assay, inhibition zone assay and minimum inhibitory concentration for investigating the growth-inhibition effect towards the Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The fractions were screened and the structure of the isolated compound was justified by interpretation of the spectroscopic data, mainly mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The structure was assigned as (5S)-3-[(3E,5S)-5-hydroxy-3-hepten-6-yn-1-yl]-5-methyl-2(5H)-furanone and was effective at concentrations as low as 0.20 mg/mL. The above findings, in the course of our ongoing research on marine products, may implicate that the profound anti-microbial activity of the S. trocheliophorum soft corals, inhabiting the red sea reefs, is attributed to the presence of growth-inhibiting secondary metabolites mainly terpenoids.

Ammoniation represents the best technique to detoxify aflatoxin-contaminated grain and it is considered as economically practicable for commercial applications. In the present studyAspergillus parasiticus was used to contaminate yellow corn to produce the final concentration reached 4000 μg/kg corn total aflatoxin. Two procedures of ammoniation (in aqueous ammonia concentrations, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2% ) were adopted for aflatoxin destruction. The first procedure was under atmospheric pressure at ambient temperature (AP/AT) for 24 hrs, and the second procedure was under high pressure (2 bar) at high temperature (121°C) (HP/HT ) for 15 min. Aflatoxin concentrations were determined by HPLC using fluorescence detection. The effect of HP/HT procedure was compared with the ammoniation procedure under AP/AT. The detoxification pattern of the two ammoniation procedures as well as the detoxification pattern of the different types of aflatoxins under the two procedures was studied.

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Food safety is the practices that ensure food does not cause harm whereas food safety hazard is any factor found in food that has potential threat or causes harm to the consumer, by causing injury or illness. Mycotoxins are significant food safety hazards representing a major threat to human and animal health. They are naturally occurring chemical hazards that can produce by certain genera of fungi, Asperigllus, Fusarium, and Penicillium as secondary metabolites. The major types of mycotoxins that have great effects on food safety and human health are aflatoxins, ochratoxins, patulin, fumonisins, zearalenone, and trichothecenes. Mycotoxins are very stable molecules and their occurrence in food can be pre-or postharvest stages. Prevention is an important strategy to control mycotoxins and should be achieved in pre-harvest and during storage stages, in both raw materials and processed food. Also, there are many methods for decontamination or detoxification which applied to food or feed contaminated with mycotoxins, without affecting the quality, the properties, or the safety of the food or feed. Continuous programs should be established to monitor the mycotoxins levels in food products during storage, distribution, and marketing to prevent any adverse effects on food safety and rather consumer health. Different methods were used for mycotoxins determination in food and feed such as TLC, HPLC, HPLC-MS, HPLC-MS/MS, and GC-MS. This review highlights chemistry, sources, occurrence, stability, prevention and control strategies, detection methods, and legislation of the most important mycotoxins with special reference to the international and Egyptian standards.