Climatic effects on aflatoxin contamination of maize.

ABSTRACT: Aflatoxins are frequent contaminants of maize especially in the face of climate change with deleterious health and socio-economic impacts. South Africa is ranked 9th maize exporter globally; hence, insights need to be gained in terms of the maize value chain in South Africa with respect to aflatoxin contamination to evaluate consumers' exposure. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) technique was used in this study to quantify aflatoxins in South African commercial maize. One thousand and twenty-eight (1028) maize samples were collected across six distinct agro-climatic regions over five harvest seasons (2017 - 2021). A total of 205 samples (19.94 %) were found to be contaminated with aflatoxins, with mean total aflatoxin concentration of 64.17 ppb amongst the contaminated samples,

SUBMITTER: Nji QN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11388663 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature