Hydrolysers of modified mycotoxins in maize: α-Amylase and cellulase induce an underestimation of the total aflatoxin content

Abstract

Aflatoxins are the most potent genotoxic and carcinogenic mycotoxins. To date, research has only focused on the presence of free aflatoxins in agricultural commodities. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to investigate the occurrence of possible modified aflatoxins in maize. Different hydrolysis methods were applied to convert modified mycotoxins into their free aflatoxins. Eighteen aflatoxin-contaminated maize samples were incubated with potassium hydroxide, trifluoromethanesulfonic acid and several enzymes to induce hydrolysis. Potassium hydroxide caused a total reduction of aflatoxins, while trifluoromethanesulfonic acid did not lead to an increase in free aflatoxins, neither did treatment with a protease. However, α-amylase and cellulase incubation caused significant increases in the total free aflatoxin content, 15 ± 8% and 13 ± 5%, respectively. These results show that a small proportion of aflatoxins could be associated to matrix substances in plants. Consequently, hydrolysis could occur during food processing and during mammalian digestion, leading to an underestimation of the total aflatoxin content.

Aflatoxins in Food and Feed: An Overview on Prevalence, Detection and Control Strategies

“…Masked fumonisins were determined through hydrolysis where modified forms were converted back to their free forms and subsequently analyzed and detected through LC/MS/MS (Dall’Asta et al, 2008; Dall’Asta et al, 2009). The hydrolytic process may involve either alkaline, acidic or enzymatic treatments (Dall’Asta et al, 2009; Beloglazova et al, 2013; Vidal et al, 2018). However, there is less information available on the masked AFs as most of the preference is given for the detection of free AFs in agricultural food and feed.…”

Occurrence, Impact on Agriculture, Human Health, and Management Strategies of Zearalenone in Food and Feed: A Review

“…Thereby, pose a serious concern for human and animal health [193,[202][203][204][205][206][207]. Further, these transformations can be achieved by a hydrolytic process involving either alkaline, acidic or enzymatic methods [208,209]. Hence, these hydrolytic methods along with in vitro digestion followed by detection with chromatographic techniques like LC/MS/MS and confirmation by methods like ELISA can be applied for modified ZEN to ensure the safety of food and feed.…”

Aflatoxins biosynthesis, toxicity and intervention strategies: A review

“…Such regulations typically reveal the strictest levels of AFTs for export and human consumption products while lowest levels are meant for items of industrial usage (Udomkun et al, 2017). Potential intervention approaches like coordination of supply chain, technical capacity building, provision of suitable incentives to control fungal infections and enhanced public awareness through extension services are vital to address the issue of aflatoxicosis (Deng et al, 2018;Fan et al, 2018;Klingelhöfer et al, 2018;Moon et al, 2018;Peng et al, 2018;Salem et al, 2018;Spanjer, 2019;Vidal et al, 2018;Xu et al, 2018).…”