Aflatoxin B1 evaluation of two hybrids of corn crop in Fars, Khuzestan and Moghan

Aflatoxins are highly toxic and carcinogenic that consists of a 20 secondary fungal metabolites, these mycotoxins, which have been produced in various crop products, mostly produced by Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus. After wide experimentation on many animal species, aflatoxin especially aflatoxin B1 is confirmed as a potential carcinogen. The principal target organ for aflatoxins is the liver. Maize because of its value and quality are planted in broad part of the world and Iran, Based on USDA estimation in case of maize harvested area Iran with 210,000 HA is 55th among the countries in the world. It has been reported that some corn that harvested from north of Iran (Mazandaran) were contaminated with Aflatoxin B1 and B2.HPLC is the ordinary method for analysis of mycotoxins. Determination of Aflatoxin B1 with ELISA is valid, cheep, fast and easy. Contaminations of 376 corn samples collected at harvest time in 2006-2008 from Ardabil (60 samples), Khuzestan (140 samples) and Fars (176 samples) provinces after drying and graining were determined by competitive enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (R-Biopharm) method. The accuracy of method was compared with determination of Aflatoxin B1 by High Performance Chromatography (HPLC) some samples were analyzed with ELISA and HPLC. 164 samples of total samples were contaminated with Aflatoxin B1 that only 25 % of them was contaminated higher than MRL. The percent of contaminated samples was 33 percent for Ardebil, 44 percent for Khuzestan and 3 percent for Fars in 2006- corn samples and it was 47, 24 and 3 percent in 2007 and 76.2, 15.1 and 14.8 respectively in 2008 corn product. The range of contamination and mean of contamination of corn products in 2006 was 1-132.2(20.57) ng/g for Ardebil, 1-90.78(16.04) ng/g for Khuzestan and 1- 29.95(1.52) ng/g for Fars province, it was 1-303.9(60.08)ng/g for Ardebil, 1-184.9 (24.7) for Khuzestan and 1- 126.93(4.73) ng/g for Fars in 2007 corn product, and in 3rd year was 1-391.77(134.41) ng/g for Ardebil, 1-104.9 (5.95) ng/g for Khuzestan and 1- 280.32 (13.67) ng/g for Fars province. In this tree years it was not seen a big difference between two types of maize and in Fars province the lowest amount of aflatoxin was detected.