Fumigation of high moisture seed with acetic acid to control storage mold

Abstract

Acetic acid (AA) vapour applied to high moisture content canola, corn, rice and wheat inoculated with conidia of Aspergillus flavus effectively prevented A. flavus from growing. Wheat (500 g) initially fumigated with AA at 0.78 mL kg−1 of seed had complete germination and zero mold infection after storage for 102 d at 20 °C. The untreated control had 37% germination and all seeds were infected. Canola fumigated with AA at 0.58 mL kg−1 of seed and evaluated for mold colonies/gram of seed had zero compared to 2400 colonies in the untreated control after storage at 20 °C for 38 d. Absorption of AA vapour occurred rapidly during the first few minutes of fumigation, reaching equilibrium within approximately 20 min. The amount of AA vapour absorbed by seed increased as moisture content increased. Key words:Aspergillus flavus, storage fungi, organic acid, vapour