A Review of Current Methods for Analysis of Mycotoxins in Herbal Medicines

Abstract

The presence of mycotoxins in herbal medicines is an established problem throughout the entire world. The sensitive and accurate analysis of mycotoxin in complicated matrices (e.g., herbs) typically involves challenging sample pretreatment procedures and an efficient detection instrument. However, although numerous reviews have been published regarding the occurrence of mycotoxins in herbal medicines, few of them provided a detailed summary of related analytical methods for mycotoxin determination. This review focuses on analytical techniques including sampling, extraction, cleanup, and detection for mycotoxin determination in herbal medicines established within the past ten years. Dedicated sections of this article address the significant developments in sample preparation, and highlight the importance of this procedure in the analytical technology. This review also summarizes conventional chromatographic techniques for mycotoxin qualification or quantitation, as well as recent studies regarding the development and application of screening assays such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, lateral flow immunoassays, aptamer-based lateral flow assays, and cytometric bead arrays. The present work provides a good insight regarding the advanced research that has been done and closes with an indication of future demand for the emerging technologies.

Occurrence and Characterization of Fungi and Mycotoxins in Contaminated Medicinal Herbs

“…In 1993, the International Agency for Research on Cancer reported AFB 1 as a Class 1 carcinogen [13], since it is 68-fold more toxic than arsenic, second only to botulinum, and is currently the most toxic mycotoxin. The 2015 edition of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia has specified 14 types of medicinal materials including Nelumbinis semen, Myristicae semen, and Jujubae fructus, and five types of animal medicinal materials such as Hirudo to detect AFs, and established a permissible limit of 10 µg kg −1 in these medicinal material [10]. Approximate 70.8% (34/48) of medicinal herbs in this study were slightly contaminated with aflatoxins (<5 µg/kg).…”

“…In the case of medicinal plants, official regulations regarding the presence of only aflatoxins and OTA in medicinal herbs are shared globally among pharmacopoeias and national and organizational regulations. In general, the current legal limit for AFB 1 in medicinal herbs ranges between 2 µg kg −1 and 10 µg kg −1 , while the limit for total aflatoxins (combined AFB 1 , AFB 2 , AFG 1 , and AFG 2 ) ranges from 4 µg kg −1 to 20 µg kg −1 , and the limit for OTA rangs from 15 µg kg −1 to 80 µg kg −1 [10]. Herein, 70.8% (34/48) of medicinal herbs were contaminated with AFB 1 ; however their levels were within the permissible limits (5 µg kg −1 ).…”

Detection Methods for Aflatoxin M1 in Dairy Products

“…The QuEChERS method includes two steps-a simultaneous extraction and partitioning step using acetonitrile and salts, followed by a clean-up step based on a dispersive solid-phase extraction (dSPE) [30,32]. Following the acetonitrile extraction step, different sorbents, such as octadecyl silica (C18), primary secondary amine (PSA), and graphitized carbon black (GCB), can be used for additional purification, which can result in satisfactory recoveries due to the reduced matrix effect [31].…”

Studying the contamination of tea and herbal infusions with mold fungi as potential mykotoxin producers: The first step to risk assessment (Message 1)

“…The most significant fungi here belong to the following stems: Aspergillus, Penicillium, Fusarium, Alternaria and Claviceps [1]. A MT range produced by these microscopic fungi includes both highly toxic ones such as zearalenone (ZEA), deoxynivalenol (DON), aflatoxins (AF B1), fumonisins (FB1 and FB2), ochratoxin A (OTA) and patulin, T-2 toxin, with their contents in food products being strictly standardized in the Customs Union countries (CU TR 021/2011) 1 and abroad [2][3][4][5][6][7][8], and emergent mycotoxins (EMT) that have not been studied enough: enniatins, bovericin, moniliformin, fuzproliferin, fusaric acid, sterigmatocystin, emodin, mycophenolic acid, alternariol and its monomethyl ether, tenuazonic acid, asperglaucid, and tentoxin, that can simultaneously occur in food products and make its toxic contribution into an end product [9][10][11][12]. Mycotoxins cause actual hazards for people as they exert carcinogenic, mutagenic, and teratogenic impacts, suppress the immune system, and can induce a number of diseases [13].…”