Aflatoxins in black tea in Iran

Abstract

Aflatoxins (AFs) are highly toxic, and carcinogenic secondary fungal metabolites and have been detected in various food commodities. In this regard, 40 black tea samples including domestic and imported black tea were analysed for aflatoxin contamination by high-performance liquid chromatography using a post-column derivatisation procedure (Kobra cell) with fluorescence detection. Samples were randomly collected in 2010 from Tehran markets. The results revealed that 30 among 40 samples were contaminated with aflatoxins (27.5% of the total). Mean AFB1 content was 10.0 ng/g and mean of aflatoxin total was 12.07 ng/g for the 11 contaminated samples.

Keywords:

• aflatoxins
• black tea
• Iran
• HPLC