Survey of maize from south-western Nigeria for zearalenone, α-and β-zearalenols, fumonisin B_1 and enniatins produced by Fusarium species

摘要

A survey for the natural occurrence of Fusarium mycotoxins in maize for human consumption in four south-western states of Nigeria using High Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectroscopy (HPLC/MS) showed that 93.4% of the samples were contaminated with zearalenone (ZON), α-and β-zearalenols (α-and β-ZOL), fumonisin B_1 (FB_1) or enniatins (ENNs). The fractions of contaminated samples were 73% for FB_1 (mean:117 μg kg~(-1), range: 10-760 μg kg~(-1)); 57% for ZON (mean:49 μg kg~(-1), range: 115-779 μg kg~(-1)) and 13% for α-ZOL (mean: 63.6 μg kg~(-1), range:32-181 μg kg~(-1)), while ENNs A1, B and B_1 were present in 3, 7 and 3% of the samples respectively. There was no β-ZOL present above the quantification limits of 50 μg kg~(-1). Only the FB_1 content was significantly different at the 95% confidence level among the four states. The Fusarium species most frequently isolated from maize seeds were F. verticillioides (70%), followed by F. sporotrichioides (42%), F. graminearum (30%), F. pallidoroseum (15%), F. compactum (12%), F. proliferatum (12%), it equiseti (9%), F. acuminatum (8%) and F. subglutinans (4%). This is the first report of the occurrence of α-zearalenol and enniatins in Nigerian maize.