The Introduction To Mycotoxins
The Introduction To Mycotoxins
Introduction To Mycotoxins
Health Beyond Wealth
Mycotoxins are venomous (toxic) secondary metabolites produced by many filamentous fungi belonging to the
phylum Ascomycota. It can also be defined as “natural products produced by fungi that evoke a poisonous response
when introduced in low concentration to higher vertebrates and other animals by a natural route.” Some mycotoxins
can have additional effects such as phytotoxicity or antimicrobial activity.
Generally, mycotoxins exclude substances
such as “mushroom and yeast poisons”. The major fungi causing frequent and problematic contamination of foods
and feeds with mycotoxins are members of the fungal genera Aspergillus, Fusarium, and Penicillium While
Aspergillus and Penicillium species frequently grow on foods and feed under storage conditions, Fusarium species
often infect growing crops such as wheat, barley, and corn in the field and propagate in the plant. Presently, over 300
mycotoxins have been identified and reported; however, only a few regularly contaminate food and animal
feedstuffs. These are aflatoxins (AF), ochratoxins (OT), fumonisins, patulin, zearalenone (ZEA), and trichothecenes
including deoxynivalenol (DON) and T-2 toxin. (Moretti et al,2017).
The Introduction To Mycotoxins
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Mycotoxin contamination of food is an ongoing global concern. Mycotoxin contamination is considered an
inescapable and unpredictable problem, even where good agricultural, storage, and processing practices are
implemented, posing a difficult challenge to food safety. Additionally, many mycotoxins are not easily abolished
during food processing because of their stability against heat, physical, and chemical treatments. Furthermore, feed
contamination can also pose an extra hazard for food safety due to the possible carry-over of mycotoxins to animals-
derived products such as milk, meat, and egg, leading to mycotoxin intake by humans. Many strategies have been
proposed for controlling the mycotoxin occurrence in different food commodities; however, no clear-cut solutions
exist.
Mycotoxins threaten human and animal health, hamper international trading, waste foods, and feed, and divert
resources towards the examination, enforcement, regulation, and applications to alleviate mycotoxin problems.
Unfortunately, about 25% of the world’s harvested crops are contaminated by mycotoxins each year, leading to huge
agricultural and industrial losses in the billions of dollars. Among the mycotoxins, aflatoxins (AFs) are considered
the most toxic, with an important economic burden to agriculture. In the United States (US) and European Union
(EU) countries, AFs are primarily an economic concern, whereas, in the developing countries of Asia and Africa, AFs
contribute to hundreds of hepatocellular carcinoma cases each year. Importantly, the estimated annual losses to the
US corn industry due to aflatoxin contamination range from US $52.1 million to the US $1.68 billion. Additionally,
mycotoxins are the main hazard cited in EU border rejection notifications according to Rapid Alert System for Food
The Introduction To Mycotoxins
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and Feed (RASFF), with AFs the specific mycotoxins most commonly associated with the notifications. Since the
initial discovery of mycotoxins, many methods have been validated and used for the analysis of mycotoxins in food
and feed such as thin-layer chromatography (TLC); high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with
FLD, UV, DAD, or MS detection; gas chromatography (GC) coupled with ECD, FID, or MS detection; Ultra
Performance Liquid Chromatography (UPLC); enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA); and rapid strip
screening tests. Although tremendous progress has been made in this area, there are still major challenges and
drawbacks to these analytical methods that need to be addressed. Analytical challenges include difficulties in
detecting low-level mycotoxin contamination, complex food matrices in which the mycotoxin contamination occurs
necessitating complicated extraction processes, the great diversity of mycotoxin chemical structures, and the co-
occurrence of mycotoxins. To tackle these challenges, continuous improvements in the analytical methodology for
mycotoxin analysis in a variety of food Symptoms, Causes Of Blood Infection, And Treatment are needed to support
the enforcement of mycotoxin regulations, protect consumers’ health, support the agriculture industry, and facilitate
international food trade. This review summarizes the key mycotoxins commonly contaminating foodstuffs, their
toxicity, and the key methods used for their detection and analysis in a variety of foods. (Novartis et al;2001).
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