Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is one of the most important agricultural crops. Egypt has one of the highest
wheat per capita consumption levels in the world (108 kg/person/year).Wheat must be produced free of
hazardous contaminants. However, previous investigations showed that wheat could be contaminated by
aflatoxins above the limits that may be critical for health. In post-harvest situations, crop spoilage, fungal
growth, and mycotoxin formation result from the interaction of several factors in the storage environment.
In this study, use of ozone gas achieved as an anti-aflatoxin B1 in wheat grains during storage. Wheat
samples were artificially infected with spores count of Aspergillus flavus ATCC 28542 strain (105, 104,
103,102 and 101 spores/kg) and ozonation at 20 and 40 ppm ozone gas for 5, 10, 15 and 20 min at room
temperature.
We not observed any amount of AFB1 in wheat samples were ozonation for 10, 15 and 20 min with spores
count of Aspergillus flavus strain 105 to 101 (spores/kg), But AFB1 was formed in samples treated for 5
min at 20 and 40 ppm ozone gas with artificially infected spores count 105 and 104 (spores/kg) solely.
While 5 min of exposure to ozone gas were sufficient inhibition production of AFB1 with the number of
spores fewer than 104 spores/kg. |
