Occurrence and Characterization of Fungi and Mycotoxins in Contaminated Medicinal Herbs

Toxins

Weipeng Guo¹  Jumei Zhang¹  Tingting Liu¹  Ling Chen¹  Daqing Liang¹  Jinzhen Zhou¹  Wei Chen¹  Meiping Zhao¹  Qingping Wu¹  Yuqing Zheng¹  Yudan Zhu¹ 

[1] State Key Laboratory of Applied Microbiology Southern China, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Microbial Culture Collection and Application, Guangdong Open Laboratory of Applied Microbiology, Guangdong Institute of Microbiology, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510070, China;

关键词: mycoflora;    medicinal herbs;    mycotoxin;    contamination;    aflatoxins;    citrinin;    mycotoxigenic fungi;    multiplex pcr;    hplc-ms/ms;   

DOI  :  10.3390/toxins12010030

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Traditional medicinal herbs are widely used and may be contaminated with mycotoxigenic fungi during cultivation, harvesting, and storage, causing spoilage and mycotoxin production. We evaluated the predominant mycoflora and extent of mycotoxin contaminations in 48 contaminated samples of 13 different medicinal herbs. In total, 70.8% of herbs were slightly contaminated with aflatoxins (<5 μg kg⁻¹). Codonopsis radix samples contained ochratoxin A (OTA) (360−515 μg kg⁻¹), and Scutellariae radix samples contained OTA (49−231 μg kg⁻¹) and citrinin (15−53 μg kg⁻¹). Forty samples (83.3%) contained fungal contamination. Sixty-nine strains were characterized via morphological and molecular identification. The predominant mycoflora comprised four genera, Aspergillus spp. (26.1%), Penicillium spp. (24.6%), Rhizopus spp. (14.5%), and Trichoderma spp. (11.6%). Aflatoxins, OTA, and citrinin were detected in 37 cultures by high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Approximately 21.6% of Aspergillus and Penicillium isolates produced mycotoxins. One Penicillium polonicum strain isolated from Scutellariae radix synthesized citrinin. Multiplex PCR analysis showed that three Aspergillus flavus strains harbored aflatoxin biosynthesis genes. One Aspergillus flavus strain isolated from Amomi fructus produced AFB₁ and AFB₂. To the best of our knowledge, the citrinin production by Aspergillus chevalieri and Penicillium sacculum was first reported in this study, which poses a potential risk of mycotoxin contamination in medicinal herbs.

【 授权许可】

Unknown