Ks. Mckenzie et al., OXIDATIVE-DEGRADATION AND DETOXIFICATION OF MYCOTOXINS USING A NOVEL SOURCE OF OZONE, Food and chemical toxicology, 35(8), 1997, pp. 807-820
Practical methods to degrade mycotoxins using ozone gas (O-3) have bee
n limited due to low O-3 production capabilities of conventional syste
ms and their associated costs. Recent advances in electrochemistry (i.
e. proton-exchange membrane and electrolysis technologies) have made a
vailable a novel and continuous source of O-3 gas up to 20% by weight.
It is possible that the rapid delivery of high concentrations of O-3
will result in mycotoxin degradation in contaminated grains-with minim
al destruction of nutrients. The major objectives of this study were t
o investigate the degradation and detoxification of common mycotoxins
in the presence of high concentrations of O-3 In this study, aqueous e
quimolar (32 mu M) solutions of aflatoxins B-1 (AfB(1)), B-2 (AfB(2)),
G(1) (AfG(1)), G(2) (AfG(2)), cyclopiazonic acid (CPA), fumonisin B-1
(FB1), ochratoxin A (OA), patulin, secalonic acid D (SAD) and zearale
none (ZEN) were treated with 2, 10 and/or 20 weight% O-3 over a period
of 5.0 min and analysed by HPLC. Results indicated that AfB(1) and Af
G(1) were rapidly degraded using 2% O-3, while AfB(2) and AfG(2) were
more resistant to oxidation and required higher levels of O-3 (20%) fo
r rapid degradation. In other studies, patulin, CPA, OA, SAD and ZEN w
ere degraded at 15 sec, with no by-products detectable by HPLC. Additi
onally, the toxicity of these compounds (measured by a mycotoxin-sensi
tive bioassay) was significantly decreased following treatment with O-
3 for 15 sec. In another study, FB1 (following reaction with O-3) was
rapidly degraded at 15 sec, with the formation of new products. One of
these appeared to be a 3-keto derivative of FB1. Importantly, degrada
tion of FB1 did not correlate with detoxification, since FB1 solutions
treated with O-3 were still positive in two bioassay systems. (C) 199
7 Elsevier Science Ltd.