Molds and mycotoxins in freshly harvested maize

Abstract

Incidence of toxigenic fungi (molds) and concentration of mycotoxin aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), deoxynivalenol (DON), zearalenone (ZON) and fumonisin (FB1) were studied in the maize grains collected immediately after harvesting in 2012. A total of 29 maize samples were analyzed and the highest incidence was determined for fungal species of Rhizopus (56.41%), Aspergillus (43.66%) and Fusarium (14.97%) genera. Significantly lower incidence was obtained for species of genus Penicillium (3.31%), and especially for species of genera Acremonium (1.38%), Alternaria (0.75%) and Cladosporium (0.14%). Among toxigenic fungi Aspergillus flavus (36.69%) was the most common species of As?pergillus genus, whereas the Fusarium verticillioides with 14.69% of incidence was the predominant species of Fusarium genus. In all studied maize samples, the presence of AFB1, ZON and FB1 mycotoxins was established, except for DON which was established in 75.86% samples. AFB1 was detected in average concentration of 13.95 ?g kg-1 for 44.83% of samples, and average concentration higher than 40 ?g kg-1 for 55.17% of samples. The average concentrations of DON which was detected was 235 ?g kg-1, while it was 98.38 ?g kg-1 and 3590 ?g kg-1 for the presence of ZON and FB1, respectively. Moderate positive correla?tion was obtained between concentrations of AFB1 and FB1 (r=0.35), while weak positive correlation was established between concentrations ZON and DON (r=0.02).