Microwaves were used in the present work in order to destroy pure afla
toxins (model system), and yellow corn and peanuts containing aflatoxi
ns (food system). Pure aflatoxins (B-1, B-2, G(1) and G(2)) were indiv
idually coated on a silica gel and exposed to microwaves at various po
wer settings and periods. The same technique was adopted for peanuts a
nd yellow corn deliberately infected by Aspergillus flavus. The aflato
xins were extracted, fractionated by thin-layer chromatographic techni
que and quantitatively determined by spectrodensitometry. In all cases
, the content of different aflatoxins in the deliberately infected yel
low corn was in the decreasing order B-1 = G(1) > B-2 > G(2). Infected
peanuts were characterized by the highest B-1 level, being approximat
ely 3, 2, and 4.4 times as great as that in B-2, G(1) and G(2), respec
tively. The rate of aflatoxin destruction of model and food systems in
creased with the increase of microwave oven power setting (low, modera
te and high) and exposure time to microwaves.