A preliminary study on biodetoxification of aflatoxins present in paddy straw and groundnut

Abstract

Mycotoxins are fungal toxic metabolites which naturally contaminate food and feed. Aflatoxins are listed as Group I carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a body of the World Health Organization. Aflatoxins are one of the most important toxic metabolites which contaminates feed during storage. Consuming of this contaminated feed by the dairy cattle may result in decreasing milk yield, blindness, photosensitive dermatitis and some other reproductive problems. Various physical and chemical methods of reducing mycotoxins have been recommended, but only few have been accepted for practical use. In this study aflatoxin was extracted from contaminated paddy straw and groundnut with the help of The Association of analytical communities (AOAC) method and confirmed by High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).  Basidiomycetous fungus Pleurotus sajor-caju and laccase enzyme was used to degrade or transform aflatoxin into less toxic metabolites.