Contamination and Health Risk Assessment of Multiple Mycotoxins in Edible and Medicinal Plants

Yingyue Zhang; Fengyan Kuang; Chunyao Liu; Kai Ma; Tianyu Liu; Meijuan Zhao; Guangping Lv; He Huang

doi:10.3390/toxins15030209

Contamination and Health Risk Assessment of Multiple Mycotoxins in Edible and Medicinal Plants

Toxins (Basel). 2023 Mar 10;15(3):209. doi: 10.3390/toxins15030209.

Authors

Yingyue Zhang^{1

2}, Fengyan Kuang², Chunyao Liu³, Kai Ma², Tianyu Liu², Meijuan Zhao², Guangping Lv², He Huang^{2

4}

Affiliations

¹ School of Life Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China.
² School of Food Science and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China.
³ School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, China.
⁴ Food Laboratory of Zhongyuan, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China.

Abstract

Edible and medicinal plants (EMPs) are widely used but are easily infected by harmful fungi which produce mycotoxins. Herein, 127 samples from 11 provinces were collected to investigate 15 mycotoxins based on geographic, demographic, processing, and risk characteristics. A total of 13 mycotoxins were detected, and aflatoxin B₁ (0.56~97.00 μg/kg), deoxynivalenol (9.41~1570.35 μg/kg), fumonisin B₁ (8.25~1875.77 μg/kg), fumonisin B₂ (2.74~543.01 μg/kg), ochratoxin A (0.62~19.30 μg/kg), and zearalenone (1.64~2376.58 μg/kg) occurred more frequently. Mycotoxin levels and species were significantly different by region, types of EMPs, and method of processing. The margin of exposure (MOE) values was well below the safe MOE (10,000). AFB₁ exposure from Coix seed and malt consumption in China was of high health concern. The hazard Index (HI) method showed the range of 113.15~130.73% for malt, indicating a public health concern. In conclusion, EMPs should be concerned because of the cumulative effects of co-occurred mycotoxins, and safety management strategies should be developed in follow-up studies.

Keywords: coix seed; lilii bulbus; lotus seed; malt; mycotoxins; risk assessment.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Food Contamination / analysis
Mycotoxins* / analysis
Plants, Edible
Plants, Medicinal*
Risk Assessment
Zearalenone* / analysis

Substances

Mycotoxins
Zearalenone

Grants and funding

Study is supported by grants from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2019YFC1604900), Major Natural Science Research Projects of Colleges and Universities in Jiangsu Province (22KJA360010), and the Postgraduate Research and Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (No. 1812000024885).