Occurrence of Zearalenone, Zearalenol and Deoxynivalenol in Some Market Samples of Dried Vegetables in J&K State

Abstract

In Jammu and Kashmir state, there is a trend of sun-drying the surplus vegetables and marketing them for consumption in off-seasons. Unfortunately, warm and humid weather conditions prevailing during dehydration, followed by faulty storage practices may allow proliferation of such microbes, which could be degradative and toxigenic. In view of this, an investigation was conducted on market samples of J&K state to determine the association of toxigenic fusarial species with the surface of commonly consumed sun-dried vegetables viz., brinjal, tomato, cauliflower, bottle gourd, bitter gourd and turnip. All the samples of dried vegetables excepting that of bottle gourd were found to be contaminated with two species of Fusarium viz., F. solani and F. subglutinans. HPLC analysis conducted for estimating natural incidence of fusarial toxins revealed the presence of zearalenone (ZEN), zearalenol (ZOL) and deoxynivalenol (DON). Contamination of ZEN was detected in market samples of dried brinjal, tomato, cauliflower, turnip and bitter gourd with highest concentration (4.75 ppm) in one of the tomato samples. However, while investigating the marketed dried vegetables for ZOL contamination, only bitter gourd samples were found to be positive with contamination varying from 1.79 to 2.16 ppm. Similarly, contamination of DON was detected from market samples of dried brinjal, turnip and cauliflower. Its concentration was detected to be maximum in a cauliflower sample (2.12 ppm), whereas least contamination (0.09 ppm) was detected from a turnip sample. Some market samples of dried brinjal, bitter gourd, turnip and cauliflower even showed co-occurrence of fusarial toxins.