Natural occurrence of fumonisins in corn from Iran

Corn collected in the Mazandaran and Isfahan Provinces of Iran was analyzed for fumonisin B-1 (FB1), fumonisin B-2 (FB2), and fumonisin B-3 (FB3). The samples from Mazandaran Province, situated on the Caspian littoral of Iran , were random samples from farmers' corn lots collected in September 1998, whereas those from Isfahan Province, situated further south in the center o f Iran, were bought as corn cobs in the local retail market during October 1998. All 11 samples from Mazandaran showed high levels of fumonisin contam ination with FB1 levels between 1.270 and 3.980 mu g/g, FB2 levels between 0.190 and 1.175 mu g/g, and FB3 levels between 0.155 and 0.960 mu g/g. Samp les from Isfahan showed lower levels of contamination with eight of eight s amples having detectable FB1 (0.010-0.590 mu g/g), two of eight samples hav ing detectable FB2 (0.050 -0.075 mu g/g), and two of eight samples having d etectable FB3 (0.050-0.075 mu g/g). This is the first report of fumonisin c ontamination of corn from Iran, in which samples from the area of high esop hageal cancer on the Caspian littoral have been shown to contain high level s of fumonisins.