By-Products of Lipoperoxidation and Aflatoxin Production

Abstract

Lipoperoxides(epoxides, hydroperoxides etc.)from any sources are capable of over-stimulating the production of aflatoxins and their congeners, both ‘in vitro’ and ‘in vivo'. It is well known that hydroperoxides from polyunsaturated fatty acids, a crucial step in lipoperoxidative process, are very unstable compounds and decompose by chain cleavage to form complex mixtures of compounds such as aldehydes, ketons, alkanes. Some of these by-products, namely hexanal, pentanal, 2-nonenal, 2-octenal, caproic acid and 2-butanone were found to parallel the effect of lipoperoxides in supporting the production of aflatoxins and their congeners.