Mycotoxins contamination of maize in Anambra State, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Studies focused on isolation of mycotoxigenic fungi and quantification of mycotoxin contamination of 36 maize samples sold in Anambra State local markets. Duplicate samples of surface sterilised, blended, and serially diluted maize samples were cultured in potato dextrose agar fortified with 0.5mg/ml chloramphenicol. Using twelve randomly selected, blended samples for mycotoxins quantification, two hundred and ninety-two fungal isolates consisting of 20 species of moulds and 7 species of yeasts were isolated. Some recovered isolates were Aspergillus niger (7.87%), Aspergillus flavus (5.48%), Aspergillus fumigatus (4.11%), Penicillium cherasanum (3.08%), P. verrucosum (2.05%), P. marneffei (2.05%), Fusarium oxysporium (5.14%), Fusarium solani (3.42%), Rhizopus oryzae (3.42%), Candida albicans(2.82%), and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (8.56%). Aflatoxin was not found. The determination of mycotoxigenic fungi and high concentrations of deoxynivalenol and zearalenone above the maximum limits is a source of concern as regular consumption of maize containing these mycotoxins could be unsafe for humans or animals.

KEYWORDS:

• Fungal
• contamination
• mycotoxin
• toxicity
• maize

Acknowledgments

We are indebted to Prof. Olusegun Atanda of Mcpherson University, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria and Mr. Duru Samuel Ngozi of Nigerian Stored Products Research, Institute Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria who provided the contact for quantification of mycotoxins.

We are also grateful to Dr. Michael Sulyok and Prof. Rudolf Kraska of Centre for Analytical Chemistry, Department of Agro biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Tulln, Austria who did the mycotoxin quantification analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this manuscript.