The Occurrence of Aflatoxins in Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) Worldwide

Abstract

Due to global warming, the risk of aflatoxins exposure through the consumption of contaminated food has increased. Aflatoxins pose serious health hazards to humans’ and animals’ health because of their carcinogenic, mutagenic, and teratogenic properties and their immunosuppressive effects. Aflatoxin contamination in various agricultural commodities has attracted much attention worldwide. Date palm fruits are among these important commodities that are vulnerable to fungal contamination and consequent aflatoxins production. Furthermore, dates are often consumed directly without any further processing, which may result in direct exposure to aflatoxins. Moreover, dates are the second dried fruits traded worldwide, which reflects the widespread consumption of dates due to their nutritive values in addition to religious and cultural values. Accordingly, this review summarizes and discusses the frequency and incidence of aflatoxin contamination in dates worldwide and outlines the analytical procedure for aflatoxin determination in dates for the first time. The susceptibility of date palm fruits to aflatoxins contamination has been documented at various levels in several regions. The findings urged the importance of conducting more comprehensive studies on aflatoxin occurrence and contamination levels in dates as a likely contributor to the dietary exposure to aflatoxins.

A Comprehensive Review of the Nutritional Composition and Toxicological Profile of Date Seed Coffee (Phoenix dactylifera)

“…This is supported by a large screening study that compared the contamination levels of traded goods worldwide. Almaghrabi found that highly regulated markets, such as the European Union, have lower contamination levels compared to developing countries with less-well-regulated food systems [69].…”

A Preliminary Survey of Harmful Date Palm Fauna in D. I. Khan

“…It completes its entire life cycle inside the trunk of date palm tree. About 300 eggs are deposited by the female in different holes or injured sections of the trunk [6][7][8]. The legless grubs hatch from these eggs after 2-5 days which readily start boring the interior of the trunk by feeding on the soft tissues and discarding the entire fibrous material.…”

Susceptibility of Ajwa dates (Phoenix dactylifera) to aflatoxin contamination based on liquid chromatography combined with electrospray ionisation-triple quadrupole tandem-mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS)

“…Furthermore, several surveys conducted in the Mediterranean countries found that the aflatoxigenic aspergilli, particularly A. flavus and A. niger, are the more frequently detected mycotoxigenic fungi in dried dates, apricots, and prunes (Zohri and Abdel-Gawad, 1993;Aziz and Moussa, 2002;Heperkan, 2006). Moreover, A. flavus was also the main cause of aflatoxin contaminants in dried dates and prunes (Ozer et al, 2012) However, there is insufficient knowledge and a lack of published data regarding aflatoxin contamination of date palm fruits (Iqbal et al, 2014;Almaghrabi, 2022), Specifically, there is no published data reporting the occurrence of aflatoxin contamination in Ajwa dates. The studies of Al Hazzani et al (2014) and Al-Mutarrafi et al (2019) were designed to evaluate the fungal and bacterial loads in dried fruits (such as Sukkari, Mabroon, Amber, Ajwa, Rabeae, Mashrooq, Al Segae, Khodary, and Khalas), and the results confirmed Aspergillus spp.…”