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...

Seeds of aflatoxin-resistant and aflatoxin-susceptible maize lines were inoculated with conidia of aflatoxin-producing Aspergillus flavus or A. parasiticus isolates or isogenic non-producing mutants. Conidia were recovered from resistant maize seed after seven days in significantly lower amounts for aflatoxin-producing A. flavus and A. parasiticus strains than for isogenic mutants incapable of ...