Certain filamentous fungi produce mycotoxins that contaminate food. Mycotoxin contamination of crops is highly influenced by environmental conditions and is already affected by global warming, where there is a succession of mycotoxigenic fungi towards those that have higher optimal growth temperatures. Aflatoxigenic fungi are at the highest limit of temperature although predicted increases in t...

The potential of line-scan Raman hyperspectral imaging system equipped with a 785 nm line laser was examined for discrimination uninfected control, AF36-inoculated and AF13-inoculated corn kernels in this study. AF13 AF36 strains were used as representatives the aflatoxigenic non-aflatoxigenic A. flavus fungi. A total 300 3 treatments, namely, 100 inoculated fungus, sterile distilled water cont...

Of 120 isolates of the Aspergillus flavus group from pecans used in bakery products, 85 were shown to produce aflatoxin on yeast extract sucrose medium. Extracts from moldy sections of raw pecans obtained commercially at the retail level showed aflatoxin-like spots on thin-layer chromatography. Cooked (autoclaved) pecans inoculated with toxigenic isolates of A. flavus were also good substrates ...

AIMS To develop a natural fungicide against aflatoxigenic fungi, to protect stored rice, using the essential oil of lemongrass. METHODS AND RESULTS Aspergillus flavus Link. was isolated from stored rice and identified as an aflatoxigenic strain. Lemongrass oil was tested against A. flavus and the test oil was fungistatic and fungicidal against the test pathogen at 0.6 and 1.0 mg ml(-1), respe...

AIMS To establish a relationship between lipase gene expression and aflatoxin production by cloning the lipA gene and studying its expression pattern in several aflatoxigenic and nontoxigenic isolates of Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus. METHODS AND RESULTS We have cloned a gene, lipA, that encodes a lipase involved in the breakdown of lipids from aflatoxin-producing A. flavus, A. parasi...

To isolate the bright-greenish-yellow-fluorescence (BGY-F) material associated with aflatoxin contamination on cotton lint, various in vitro chemical and in vivo natural BGY-F reaction products were prepared. BGY-F material was obtained from reactions involving (1) kojic acid (KA) and H2O2, (b) KA, peroxidase, and H2O2, (c) fresh cotton locules treated with KA and H2O2, (d) detached cotton locu...