The Study on the Detection of Aflatoxins in the Fermentation Products and Cereals

TLC법에 의한 장류 및 공류중의 Aflatoxin검출에 관한 연구

  • Published : 1978.04.01

Abstract

Aflatoxin, a mixture of the at least four toxic and carcinogenic metabolites, is known to be produced by only a few fungi. The toxins were designated aflatoxins because they were produced by the mold Aspergillus flavus(A. flavus). However, at least four other toxins and other species of the genus A. niger, A. parasiticus A. ruber and wentii have been reported to produce aflatoxins. And also the identical compounds may also be produced by molds, the Pencillium. At least four different species of Penicilliurn have been reported to produce aflatoxins (P. citrinurn, P. frequentans, P. puberulurn. and P. variable). So it is now known that the problem of Aflatoxin is not restricted to the single species A. flavus, even though that is a very common mold. Also additional aflatoxins have been discorvered. For sereral years, only four aflatoxins were known: $B_1, B_2, G_1$ and $G_2$, so designated by reason of their fluorescence and chromatographic charateristics. It is now known that there are really two new toxic materials in the milk. During the past year(1966) they were christened aflatoxin $M_1$ and $M_2$, since they were first found in milk. The two other and most recently discorvered aflatoxins were isolated late in 1966 from cultures of A. flavus, and were designated aflatoxin $B_2a$ and aflatoxin $G_2a$. In order to obtain a breaf information about extent of contamination of foodstuffs by aflatoxin which is known to produce eight different mold, aflatoxin detection of cereals and fermented foods on sale, such as polished rice, barley, wheat, wheat flour, lentil, red bean, soy bean, noodle, kochuj ang and Dwenjang (fermented soy bean paste) and chong Kuk, were carried out. The results of this investigation were summarized as follows: The hexane:$CHCl_3$ extracts of polished rice, barley wheat, wheat flour, lentil, red bean, noodle and kochujang yielded fluorescent spots on thin layer plates. However their Rfvalues were different from those of authentic aflatoxins. The fluorescent substances of the extract from soy bean, Dwenjang and chong kuk showed very similar Rf values to those of the standard aflatoxins. By two dimensional thin layer chromatography and comparison of ultra violet absorption spectra, it was found that these fluorescent substances were not aflatoxins. To conclude, aflatoxins themselves were not detected directly in those samples tested.

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