This mini review article described the exposure of aflatoxin in Malaysia, including its presence in the foodstuffs and the detection of aflatoxin biomarkers in human biological samples. Historically, the exposure of aflatoxin in Malaysia can be dated in 1960s where an outbreak of disease in pig farms caused severe liver damage to the animals. Later, an aflatoxicosis case in Perak in 1988 was re...

This work aimed to analyze the nutrient values, examine the biodeteriorating fungi biota, and analyze the mycotoxin contents of "Suya spices." Fungi with highest percentage occurrence on all the samples are Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus parasiticus, Aspergillus ochraceus, Fusarium sp., Rhizopus stolonifer, yeast, and Trichoderma koningii. Nutrient composition of the samples...

Lactating dairy goats were exposed to aflatoxin (100 and 200 ppb) and hydrated sodium calcium aluminosilicate at 1, 2, and 4% in two separate experiments. Naturally occurring low levels of aflatoxin M1 (.009 ppb) were found in the milk of the control diet, whereas there were no detectable levels of aflatoxin M1 in the milk of diets containing hydrated sodium calcium aluminosilicate in both expe...

Eukaryotes have evolved highly conserved vesicle transport machinery to deliver proteins to the vacuole. In this study we show that the filamentous fungus Aspergillus parasiticus employs this delivery system to perform new cellular functions, the synthesis, compartmentalization, and export of aflatoxin; this secondary metabolite is one of the most potent naturally occurring carcinogens known. H...

Isolation of Apergillus flavus from groundnut and production of aflatoxin on rice. a method has been developed for the production of aflatoxin by growing Aspergillus flavus strain AJ on the solid substrate rice. Optimal yields, more than 1mg of aflatoxin B1 per gram of starting material, were obtained in 5 days at 28C.A crude product containing aflatoxin was isolated by HPLC (High Performance L...

We described previously a simple test on petri plates for detecting chemical carcinogens as mutagens, using an especially sensitive set of bacterial strains to detect mutagenic acitivty and a mammalian liver extract for carcinogen activity. We now extend the utility of the method by introducing two new bacterial strains which can detect with great sensitivity many carcinogens which we did not d...

Aflatoxin (AF) contamination, caused by Aspergillus flavus , compromises the food safety and marketability of commodities, such as maize, cotton, peanuts, tree nuts. Multigenic inheritance AF resistance impedes conventional introgression traits into high-yielding commercial maize varieties. Several resistance-associated quantitative trait loci (QTLs) markers have been reported from multiple bip...

Mice are resistant to aflatoxin hepatotoxicity, primarily due to high expression of glutathione S-transferases (GSTs), and in particular the GSTA3 subunit. Nuclear factor erythroid 2 related factor 2 (Nrf2) signaling, which controls a broad-based cytoprotective response, was activated either genetically or pharmacologically in an attempt to rescue GSTA3 knockout mice from aflatoxin genotoxicity...

Aflatoxins are food contaminants usually associated with hepatitis, immunodepression, impairment of fertility and cancer. The present work was to determine the presence of aflatoxins in eggs, milk, urine, and blood samples that were collected from various sources and periods; and hepatitis B virus antigen in blood samples. Aflatoxin was found in eggs (45.2%), cow raw milk (15.9%), breast milk (...

Aflatoxins are highly toxic carcinogens produced by several species in Aspergillus section Flavi. Strains of A. flavus that do not produce aflatoxins, called atoxigenic strains, have been used commercially in North America as tools for limiting aflatoxin contamination. A similar aflatoxin management strategy is being pursued in Nigeria. In the current study, loci across the 68 kb aflatoxin bios...