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Title: OXIDATIVE DEGRADATION AND DETOXIFICATION OF MYCOTOXINS USING A NOVEL SOURCE OF OZONE

Author
item MCKENZIE, K - VET MED, TEXAS A&M UNIV
item SARR, A - VET MED, TEXAS A&M UNIV
item MAYURA, K - VET MED, TEXAS A&M UNIV
item BAILEY, R - VET MED, TEXAS A&M UNIV
item MILLER, D - LYNNTECH,INC.,COL STA,TX
item Norred, William
item Voss, Kenneth
item Plattner, Ronald
item Kubena, Leon

Submitted to: Food and Chemical Toxicology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/12/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Mycotoxins are poisons that are made by molds, and can sometimes occur in grains or other crops that are used for animal feed or human foods. Although much effort is made to prevent the molds that produce mycotoxins from invading crops, sometimes, because of adverse weather, insect invasion, or other conditions, the fungi grow and mycotoxins result. In this paper, a novel way to destroy mycotoxins, without damaging the crop, is presented. The method used ozone gas, generated from water, to chemically alter the mycotoxins. The effectiveness of the treatment was evaluated by methods to identify how much toxin remained after ozone treatment, and by testing for toxicity in cells and small organisms (Tetrahymena). The method was highly effective for 9 of 10 different toxins tested. For one toxin (fumonisin) although ozone altered the chemical structure, it did not reduce the toxicity. Ozone treatment appears to be a potentially useful method for decontamination of crops that might contain mycotoxins.

Technical Abstract: Practical methods to degrade mycotoxins using ozone gas (O3) have been limited due to low O3 production capabilities of conventional systems and their associated costs. Recent advances in electrochemistry have made available a novel and continuous source of O3 gas derived from the hydrolysis of water. The major objectives of this study were to investigate detoxification of common mycotoxins in the presence of O3. Solutions of aflatoxin B1 (AfB1), B2 (AfB2), G1 (AfG1), G2 (AfG2), cyclopiazonic acid (CPA), fumonisin B1 (FB1), ochratoxin (OA), patulin, secalonic acid D (SAD) and zearalenone (ZEN) were ozonated with 2, 10 and/or 20 wt% O3 over a period of 5.0 min. With the exception of FB1, reaction solutions were extracted with chloroform and analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). AfB1 and AfG1 were rapidly degraded using 2% O3; complete degradation was achieved at 15 sec with 20% O3. AfB2 and AfG2 were more resistant to oxidation and required higher levels of O3 (20%) for rapid degradation. All aflatoxin reactions followed pseudo first-order kinetics. In other studies, patulin, CPA, OA, SAD and ZEN were degraded at 15 sec, with no by-products detectable by HPLC, and the toxicity (measured by a mycotoxin-sensitive bioassay) was significantly decreased following treatment with O3 for 15 sec. FB1 was rapidly degraded at 15 sec, with the formation of new products. One of these appeared to be a 3-keto derivative of FB1 (3k-FB1). Importantly, degradation of FB1 did not correlate with detoxification, since ozonated FB1 solutions were still positive in two bioassay systems.