Single-kernel analysis of fumonisins and other fungal metabolites in maize from South African subsistence farmers

Fumonisins are important Fusarium mycotoxins mainly found in maize and derived products. This study analysed maize from five subsistence farmers in the former Transkei region of South Africa. Farmers had sorted kernels into good and mouldy quality. A total of 400 kernels from 10 batches were analyse...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Food additives & contaminants. Part A, Chemistry, analysis, control, exposure & risk assessment Chemistry, analysis, control, exposure & risk assessment, 2011-12, Vol.28 (12), p.1724-1734
Main Authors: Mogensen, J.M, Sørensen, S.M, Sulyok, M, van der Westhuizen, L, Shephard, G.S, Frisvad, J.C, Thrane, U, Krska, R, Nielsen, K.F
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aspergillus flavus
Beauvericin
Biological and medical sciences
Biological control
biological control agents
Cereal and baking product industries
cereals
Chromatography
Chromatography, Liquid
Corn
Cyclosporins
Emodin
farmers
Food additives
Food contamination
Food Contamination - analysis
Food industries
Food quality
Fumonisins
Fumonisins - analysis
Fumonisins - isolation & purification
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Fungi
fusaproliferin
Fusaric acid
Fusarium
Kernels
LC/MS
Mass spectrometry
Mass spectroscopy
Metabolites
Mitosporic Fungi - metabolism
mycology
Mycotoxins
Risk assessment
seeds
Seeds - chemistry
South Africa
Tandem Mass Spectrometry
Zea mays
Zea mays - chemistry
Zea mays - microbiology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Fumonisins are important Fusarium mycotoxins mainly found in maize and derived products. This study analysed maize from five subsistence farmers in the former Transkei region of South Africa. Farmers had sorted kernels into good and mouldy quality. A total of 400 kernels from 10 batches were analysed; of these 100 were visually characterised as uninfected and 300 as infected. Of the 400 kernels, 15% were contaminated with 1.84–1428 mg kg⁻¹ fumonisins, and 4% (n = 15) had a fumonisin content above 100 mg kg⁻¹. None of the visually uninfected maize had detectable amounts of fumonisins. The total fumonisin concentration was 0.28–1.1 mg kg⁻¹ for good-quality batches and 0.03–6.2 mg kg⁻¹ for mouldy-quality batches. The high fumonisin content in the batches was apparently caused by a small number (4%) of highly contaminated kernels, and removal of these reduced the average fumonisin content by 71%. Of the 400 kernels, 80 were screened for 186 microbial metabolites by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, detecting 17 other fungal metabolites, including fusaric acid, equisetin, fusaproliferin, beauvericin, cyclosporins, agroclavine, chanoclavine, rugulosin and emodin. Fusaric acid in samples without fumonisins indicated the possibility of using non-toxinogenic Fusaria as biocontrol agents to reduce fumonisin exposure, as done for Aspergillus flavus. This is the first report of mycotoxin profiling in single naturally infected maize kernels.
ISSN:1944-0057
1944-0049
1944-0057
DOI:10.1080/19440049.2011.611823