Role of mycotoxins in disease of man

Abstract

Mycotoxins have been adequately proven to be aetiological agents in a wide range of diseases of animals. The diverse nature of chemical structures provided by a diverse range of fungi is reflected in the diversity of syndromes associated with mycotoxicoses in animals. A small number of diseases in man have been equally well proven to be due to poisoning from the ingestion of fungal metabolites, and circumstantial evidence is now very weighty in favour of the hypothesis that fungal toxins, in particular aflatoxin, may cause a wider range of diseases in man, including liver cancer. Although people in poorer countries, already suffering from inadequate food supplies, are most at risk, there is no reason to suppose that the foods available in industrially developed countries may not also be susceptible to contamination with fungal toxins. The use of fflamentous fungi in the large scale production of both microbial biomass and such products as enzymes for incorporation into foods is being actively studied. The use of moulds in this manner is an exciting development of industrial microbiology but must be associated with a continuous vigilance for contamination of the products with toxic metabolites.