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Relationship between the Fungal Incidence, Water Activity, Humidity, and Aflatoxin Content in Maize Samples from the Highlands and Coast of Ecuador

This study evaluated the fungal incidence through direct plating in Agar Dichloran Glycerol, and the presence of aflatoxins in maize samples from the Highlands and Coast of Ecuador by HPLC, investigating the influence of the temperature, altitude, water activity, and humidity of the collection regio...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Abel Palacios, Héctor, Stefanello, Andrieli, García Gavilánez, Margarita Susana, Castro Demera, Dicke Alejandro, Garcia, Marcelo Valle, Vásquez Castillo, Wilson Arturo, Almeida Marcano, Marcelo Alejandro, Samaniego Maigua, Iván Rodrigo, Copetti, Marina Venturini
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8953395/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35324693
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins14030196
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author Abel Palacios, Héctor
Stefanello, Andrieli
García Gavilánez, Margarita Susana
Castro Demera, Dicke Alejandro
Garcia, Marcelo Valle
Vásquez Castillo, Wilson Arturo
Almeida Marcano, Marcelo Alejandro
Samaniego Maigua, Iván Rodrigo
Copetti, Marina Venturini
author_facet Abel Palacios, Héctor
Stefanello, Andrieli
García Gavilánez, Margarita Susana
Castro Demera, Dicke Alejandro
Garcia, Marcelo Valle
Vásquez Castillo, Wilson Arturo
Almeida Marcano, Marcelo Alejandro
Samaniego Maigua, Iván Rodrigo
Copetti, Marina Venturini
author_sort Abel Palacios, Héctor
collection PubMed
description This study evaluated the fungal incidence through direct plating in Agar Dichloran Glycerol, and the presence of aflatoxins in maize samples from the Highlands and Coast of Ecuador by HPLC, investigating the influence of the temperature, altitude, water activity, and humidity of the collection regions on the maize samples’ contamination using Principal Components Analysis (PCA). The overall kernel infection by fungi was usually lower in samples from the Highlands, and no aflatoxins or Aspergillus series Flavi were detected in the samples from this region. In the coastal samples, Aspergillus sp. were isolated from all samples, while the potentially aflatoxigenic A. Flavi contaminated about 80% of them. Aflatoxins were present in 50% of these samples, in ranges from 0.42 to 107.69 µg/kg. PCA was able to segregate the samples according to their collection region, and showed that the maximum and minimum temperatures are closely and positively related to the presence of A. Flavi. A highly positive relationship was also observed between the water activity of the sample and aflatoxin contamination. On the other hand, the altitude had a very strong—but negative—relationship with the variables studied. This study is relevant because data regarding fungi and aflatoxin occurrence, as well the main factor influencing the contamination of Ecuadoran maize, are scarce; it clearly shows that aflatoxins are a hazard present in maize from the Ecuadorian Coast but not the Highlands.
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spelling pubmed-89533952022-03-26 Relationship between the Fungal Incidence, Water Activity, Humidity, and Aflatoxin Content in Maize Samples from the Highlands and Coast of Ecuador Abel Palacios, Héctor Stefanello, Andrieli García Gavilánez, Margarita Susana Castro Demera, Dicke Alejandro Garcia, Marcelo Valle Vásquez Castillo, Wilson Arturo Almeida Marcano, Marcelo Alejandro Samaniego Maigua, Iván Rodrigo Copetti, Marina Venturini Toxins (Basel) Article This study evaluated the fungal incidence through direct plating in Agar Dichloran Glycerol, and the presence of aflatoxins in maize samples from the Highlands and Coast of Ecuador by HPLC, investigating the influence of the temperature, altitude, water activity, and humidity of the collection regions on the maize samples’ contamination using Principal Components Analysis (PCA). The overall kernel infection by fungi was usually lower in samples from the Highlands, and no aflatoxins or Aspergillus series Flavi were detected in the samples from this region. In the coastal samples, Aspergillus sp. were isolated from all samples, while the potentially aflatoxigenic A. Flavi contaminated about 80% of them. Aflatoxins were present in 50% of these samples, in ranges from 0.42 to 107.69 µg/kg. PCA was able to segregate the samples according to their collection region, and showed that the maximum and minimum temperatures are closely and positively related to the presence of A. Flavi. A highly positive relationship was also observed between the water activity of the sample and aflatoxin contamination. On the other hand, the altitude had a very strong—but negative—relationship with the variables studied. This study is relevant because data regarding fungi and aflatoxin occurrence, as well the main factor influencing the contamination of Ecuadoran maize, are scarce; it clearly shows that aflatoxins are a hazard present in maize from the Ecuadorian Coast but not the Highlands. MDPI 2022-03-06 /pmc/articles/PMC8953395/ /pubmed/35324693 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins14030196 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Abel Palacios, Héctor
Stefanello, Andrieli
García Gavilánez, Margarita Susana
Castro Demera, Dicke Alejandro
Garcia, Marcelo Valle
Vásquez Castillo, Wilson Arturo
Almeida Marcano, Marcelo Alejandro
Samaniego Maigua, Iván Rodrigo
Copetti, Marina Venturini
Relationship between the Fungal Incidence, Water Activity, Humidity, and Aflatoxin Content in Maize Samples from the Highlands and Coast of Ecuador
title Relationship between the Fungal Incidence, Water Activity, Humidity, and Aflatoxin Content in Maize Samples from the Highlands and Coast of Ecuador
title_full Relationship between the Fungal Incidence, Water Activity, Humidity, and Aflatoxin Content in Maize Samples from the Highlands and Coast of Ecuador
title_fullStr Relationship between the Fungal Incidence, Water Activity, Humidity, and Aflatoxin Content in Maize Samples from the Highlands and Coast of Ecuador
title_full_unstemmed Relationship between the Fungal Incidence, Water Activity, Humidity, and Aflatoxin Content in Maize Samples from the Highlands and Coast of Ecuador
title_short Relationship between the Fungal Incidence, Water Activity, Humidity, and Aflatoxin Content in Maize Samples from the Highlands and Coast of Ecuador
title_sort relationship between the fungal incidence, water activity, humidity, and aflatoxin content in maize samples from the highlands and coast of ecuador
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8953395/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35324693
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins14030196
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