Fungal isolates and metabolites in locally processed rice from five agro-ecological zones of Nigeria

ABSTRACT

This study reports the distribution of fungal isolates and fungal metabolites that naturally contaminate locally processed rice from five agro-ecological zones of Nigeria. The fungal species were isolated by the dilution plate technique and identified by appropriate diagnostics, while metabolites were determined by a liquid chromatographic tandem mass spectrometric method. Aspergillus and Penicillium species were the predominant isolates found in the rice samples while Fusarium spp. were not isolated. The mean fungal count differed significantly (p < 0.05) across the zones and ranged from 9.98 × 10² cfu g⁻¹ in the Southern Guinea Savannah to 96.97 × 10² cfu g⁻¹ in the Derived Savannah. For 16 fungal metabolites, selected from 63 positively identified fungal metabolites based on their concentration and spread across the zones, an occurrence map was constructed. The Northern Guinea Savannah recorded the highest contamination of fungal metabolites while the Sudan Savannah zone recorded the least.

KEYWORDS:

• Locally processed rice
• agro-ecological zones
• fungal metabolites
• metabolite occurrence map

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Education Trust Fund-Academic Staff Training & Development through Lagos State Polytechnic (Ikorodu, Lagos) and MycoRed: [Grant Number KBBE-2007-22269-2]. The LC–MS/MS instrument was co-financed by the Lower Austrian Government through the European Regional Development Fund. The study was supported by the Education Trust Fund-Academic Staff Training & Development through Lagos State Polytechnic (Ikorodu, Lagos [Not known]; MycoRed: [Grant Number KBBE-2007-22269-2].