Isolation and Quantification of Aflatoxin from Aspergillus flavus Infected Stored Peanuts P.N.Rajarajan

In the 1960s, 100 000 turkeys were lost in the UK as a consequence of an intoxication due to toxic metabolite coming from fungi. The cause of this disease was traced to a feed component, peanut meal which was infested by Aspergillus flavus, fungi that commonly grows in this substrate during its storage. Aflatoxins are considered to be one of the most dangerous contaminants in food and feeds. Aflatoxins are a special group of naturally occurring metabolites produced by the fungi aflatoxins B1, B2, G1 and G2 which contaminate a variety of agricultural food and feed products . A number of investigators have found that aflatoxins are acutely toxic, carcinogenic, teratogenic and mutagenic compounds [1]. Aflatoxin B1 is the most potential toxic and carcinogenic metabolite and found naturally in large amounts in agricultural crops. Since the discovery of deaths of a hundred thousand poults in 1960 [12] and the hepatomas in trout [2] were caused by feeds containing aflatoxins, there has been much effort to determine the effect of aflatoxin on other animals [10]. Feeding chickens with aflatoxin contamination cause growth retardation and increase in liver/body weight ratio, biochemical alterations and pathological changes. To conduct the necessary feed trails, large quantities of toxin are necessary [16].