Mycotoxins are fungal secondary metabolites that have been associated with severe toxic effects to vertebrates produced by many important phytopathogenic and food spoilage fungi including Aspergillus, Penicillium, Fusarium, and Alternaria species. The contamination of foods and animal feeds with mycotoxins is a worldwide problem. We reviewed various control strategies to prevent the growth of mycotoxigenic fungi as well as to inhibit mycotoxin biosynthesis including pre-harvest (resistance varieties, field management and the use of biological and chemical agents), harvest management, and post-harvest (improving of drying and storage conditions, the use of natural and chemical agents, and irradiation) applications. While much work in this area has been performed on the most economically important mycotoxins, aflatoxin B(1) and ochratoxin A much less information is available on other mycotoxins such as trichothecenes, fumonisin B(1), zearalenone, citrinin, and patulin. In addition, physical, chemical, and biological detoxification methods used to prevent exposure to the toxic and carcinogenic effect of mycotoxins are discussed. Finally, dietary strategies, which are one of the most recent approaches to counteract the mycotoxin problem with special emphasis on in vivo and in vitro efficacy of several of binding agents (activated carbons, hydrated sodium calcium aluminosilicate, bentonite, zeolites, and lactic acid bacteria) have also been reviewed.

Strategies to Prevent Mycotoxin Contamination of Food and Animal Feed: A Review

Mycotoxin toxicity occurs at very low concentrations, therefore sensitive and reliable methods for their detection are required. Consequently, sampling and analysis of mycotoxins is of critical importance because failure to achieve a suitable verified analysis can lead to unacceptable consignments being accepted or satisfactory shipments unnecessarily rejected. The general mycotoxin analyses carried out in laboratories are still based on physicochemical methods, which are continually improved. Further research in mycotoxin analysis has been established in such techniques as screening methods with TLC, GC, HPLC, and LC–MS. In some areas of mycotoxin method development, immunoaffinity columns and multifunctional columns are good choices as cleanup methods. They are appropriate to displace conventional liquid–liquid partitioning or column chromatography cleanup. On the other hand, the need for rapid yes/no decisions for exported or imported products has led to a number of new screening methods, mainly, rapid and easy-to-use test kits based on immuno-analytical principles. In view of the fact that analytical methods for detecting mycotoxins have become more prevalent, sensitive, and specific, surveillance of foods for mycotoxin contamination has become more commonplace. Reliability of methods and well-defined performance characteristics are essential for method validation. This article covers some of the latest activities and progress in qualitative and quantitative mycotoxin analysis.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1541-4337.2009.00079.x

Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Mycotoxins.

Lathyrus sativus (grass pea) and its neurotoxin ODAP

Naringenin, a flavonoid, has antiinflammatory and immunomodulatory properties. We investigated whether naringenin could attenuate allergen-induced airway inflammation and its possible mechanism in ...

Naringenin inhibits allergen-induced airway inflammation and airway responsiveness and inhibits NF-κB activity in a murine model of asthma.

Centaurea maculosa Lam. is a noxious weed in western North America that produces a phytotoxin, (±)-catechin, which is thought to contribute to its invasiveness. Areas invaded by C. maculosa often result in monocultures of the weed, however; in some areas, North American natives stand their ground against C. maculosa and show varying degrees of resistance to its phytotoxin. Two of these resistant native species, Lupinus sericeus Pursh and Gaillardia
 grandiflora Van Houtte, were found to secrete increased amounts of oxalate in response to catechin exposure. Mechanistically, we found that oxalate works exogenously by blocking generation of reactive oxygen species in susceptible plants and reducing oxidative damage generated in response to catechin. Furthermore, field experiments show that L. sericeus indirectly facilitates native grasses in grasslands invaded by C. maculosa, and this facilitation can be correlated with the presence of oxalate in soil. Addition of exogenous oxalate to native grasses and Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh grown in vitro alleviated the phytotoxic effects of catechin, supporting the field experiments and suggesting that root-secreted oxalate may also act as a chemical facilitator for plant species that do not secrete the compound.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/23389283.pdf

Oxalate contributes to the resistance of Gaillardia grandiflora and Lupinus sericeus to a phytotoxin produced by Centaurea maculosa

Liquid chromatographic determination of fluoxetine.

A procedure was developed and validated for measuring chlorpheniramine maleate and tincture ipecac (as emetine hydrochloride) by reversed-phase liquid chromatography with methanol-10 mM sodium heptanesulfonate (20 + 30) as the mobile phase; the pH was adjusted to 4 with acetic acid, and the flow rate was at 1.5 mL/min, with ultraviolet detection at 254 nm. Propyl paraben was used as the internal standard. The standard curves were linear (r = 0.998 and 0.9998) for both chlorpheniramine maleate and emetine hydrochloride over the ranges of 5-100 and 0.1-40 microg/mL, respectively. The mean recoveries +/- standard deviation were 101.37 +/- 2.77% for chlorpheniramine maleate and 98.8 +/- 1.47% for emetine hydrochloride. The proposed method was applied to the determination of chlorpheniramine maleate alone in tablet and syrup dosage forms. The method also was applied to the determination of the emetine content of ipecac liquid extract and tincture ipecac; the results were compared with those of the method of the British Pharmacopoeia. The proposed method was applied successfully to the simultaneous determination of chlorpheniramine maleate and tincture ipecac, as emetine hydrochloride, in syrup dosage form. Both drugs and the internal standard were separated from all interfering components in < 5 min. The proposed method is simple, specific, and economical, when compared with other published methods that determine each component alone.

Fawzy A El-Barbary

Papers

Liquid chromatographic determination of fluoxetine.

Determination of chlorpheniramine maleate and tincture ipecac in dosage form by liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection.