Incidence and Level of Aflatoxins Contamination in Medicinal Plants in Korea

During 2011~2013, a total of 729 samples for 19 types of medicinal plant were collected from Seoulyekryungsi in Seoul, Korea, and investigated for the presence of aflatoxins. The samples were analyzed using immunoaffinity column cleanup and high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to a fluorescence detector after post-column derivatization. Aflatoxins were found in 124 out of the 729 analyzed samples: 65 containing aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), 24 with aflatoxin B2 (AFB2), 15 with aflatoxin G1 (AFG1), and 20 samples with aflatoxin G2 (AFG2). The ranges for positive samples were 0.1~404.7 µg/kg for AFB1, 0.1~10.0 µg/kg for AFB2, 0.1~635.3 µg/kg for AFG1, 0.1~182.5 µg/kg for AFG2, and 0.1~1,043.9 µg/kg for total aflatoxins. Most of the medicinal plant samples (721, 98.9%) were below legal limits, but 8 samples exceeded the legal limits of 10 and 15 µg/kg established by the Korean standard for AFB1 and total aflatoxins (the sum of AFB1, AFB2, AFG1 and AFG2), respectively.