Abstract
Totals of 158 corn and corn-based samples and 291 wheat and wheat-based samples from Shandong province, China in 2017 were analyzed for five mycotoxins including beauvericin (BEA), enniatin A (ENA), enniatin A1 (ENA1), enniatin B (ENB), and enniatin B1 (ENB1) by high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). BEA was the predominant toxin detected, followed by ENB, ENA1, ENA, and ENB1. Corn and corn-based samples were more easily contaminated by BEA with an average concentration of 65.26 µg/kg, compared with that in wheat and wheat-based samples (average = 0.41 µg/kg). Concentrations of BEA, ENA, and ENB1 in corn kernels, flours, and flakes were significantly different (Kruskal–Wallis Test, p < 0.05), as well as for BEA, ENA, ENB, and ENB1 in wheat kernels, flours, and noodles (Kruskal–Wallis test, p < 0.05). Furthermore, 59.5% (94/158) and 59.8% (174/291) corn- and wheat-based samples were co-contaminated by at least two mycotoxins, respectively. Positive correlations in concentrations were observed in corn between levels of ENA and ENB1, ENA and ENB, ENA1 and ENB1, as well as in wheat between BEA and ENA, BEA and ENA1, BEA and ENB, BEA and ENB1, ENA and ENA1, ENA and ENB, ENA and ENB1, ENA1 and ENB, ENA1 and ENB1, and ENB and ENB1. These results demonstrate that co-contamination of BEA and enniatins (ENNs) in corn- and wheat-based samples from Shandong, China is very common. More data on the contamination of five mycotoxins in cereal and cereal-based samples nationwide are needed.
Highlights
Beauvericin (BEA) and enniatins (ENNs) are emerging mycotoxins mainly produced by fungi of the Fusarium genus such as F. oxysporum, F. avenaceum, F. equiseti, and F. poae
enniatin A1 (ENA1) and enniatin B (ENB) were present at much lower frequencies than those detected for BEA, enniatin A (ENA), and enniatin B1 (ENB1) in all 158 analyzed samples, with a positive rate of 8.2% (13/158) and the levels ranging from 0.02 μg/kg to 6.29 μg/kg for ENA1, and a positive rate of 3.8% (6/158) and the levels ranging from
BEA was detected in 85.9% (61/71) samples with the levels ranging from 0.06 μg/kg to 1006.56 μg/kg, which was higher than those found for ENB1, ENA1, ENA, and ENB in corn kernels
Summary
Beauvericin (BEA) and enniatins (ENNs) are emerging mycotoxins mainly produced by fungi of the Fusarium genus such as F. oxysporum, F. avenaceum, F. equiseti, and F. poae. They are structurally related to cyclic hexadepsipeptides, consisting of three alternating hydroxyisovaleryl and N-methylamino acid residues [1,2]. BEA and ENNs have been shown to exhibit a variety of biological properties including antibiotic, anti-insect, antifungal, and cytotoxic activities [4,5,6,7,8]. A lot of studies on the subject of BEA and ENNs contamination in food are available; most of them are focused on cereals from Europe [3,4,11,12,13,14]
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