Natural co-occurrence of aflatoxins and ochratoxin A in liquorice roots

ABSTRACT

The natural co-occurrence of aflatoxins (AFs) and ochratoxin A (OTA) in liquorice roots obtained from different herbal outlets of Karachi, Pakistan, was evaluated. A total of 60 samples were obtained during 2019‒2021 and analysed using HPLC with fluorescence detection. The method was validated according to the European Union (EU) regulation. The incidence of AFs was 52 in all tested samples (87%), with a contamination range of 1.2‒6.4 µg kg⁻¹ and an average of 2.1 ± 0.3 µg kg⁻¹. In all samples, the AFs contamination was below the maximum limit (ML) of 10 µg kg⁻¹ for total AFs as set by the EU. The OTA contamination in all samples ranged 1.5‒60.3 µg kg⁻¹, with a mean of 18.9 ± 0.8 µg kg⁻¹. In 36 samples (60%) the OTA contamination was below the ML of 20 µg kg⁻¹ as set by the EU. These results led to the recommendation to test liquorice root on mycotoxins, as it comes to food quality standards.

KEYWORDS:

• Aflatoxins
• ochratoxin A
• liquorice roots
• co-occurrence
• HPLC-FLD
• Pakistan
• Glycyrrhiza glabra

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/19393210.2023.2253210.

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Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.