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Risk Assessment and Mitigation of the Mycotoxin Content in Medicinal Plants by the Infusion Process

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Abstract

Medicinal plants are often consumed as infusions with boiled water. Scarce information is available in the literature about the migration of mycotoxins into the resulting beverage and/or the effects of the infusion procedure on the final mycotoxin contents. The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of the infusion process on mycotoxin contents during medicinal plant preparation. For this purpose, the contents of aflatoxins (AFs) [aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), aflatoxin B2 (AFB2), aflatoxin G1 (AFG1), aflatoxin G2 (AFG2)], zearalenone (ZEA), enniatins (ENNs) [enniatin B (ENNB), enniatin B1 (ENNB1), enniatin A (ENNA), enniatin A1 (ENNA1)] and beauvericin (BEA) were analyzed in 224 samples of medicinal plants and in their resulting beverages. The quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe extraction method (QuEChERS) was applied to the medicinal plants while the dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction procedure (DLLME) was applied to their infusions, and the mycotoxins were determined by liquid chromatography coupled to ion trap tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS-IT). The results revealed that ZEA, ENNB, ENNB1, AFB2, AFG1 and AFG2 were detected in the beverages with incidences of ≤6% and at concentrations from less than the limit of quantification (LOQ) to 82.2 μg/L. Mycotoxins reduction ranged from 74 to 100% after the infusion process. The risk assessment revealed that the estimated daily intakes (EDIs) obtained for ZEA, ENNB and ENNB1 were far below the tolerable daily intakes (TDIs) established.

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Abbreviations

ACN:

acetonitrile

AFG2:

aflatoxin G2

AFG1:

aflatoxin G1

AFB2:

aflatoxin B2

AFB1:

aflatoxin B1

AFs:

aflatoxins

BEA:

beauvericin

CHCl3:

chloroform

DLLME:

dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction

DON:

deoxynivalenol

ENNs:

enniatins

EtOAc:

ethyl acetate

FBs:

fumonisins

LC- MS/MS-IT:

liquid chromatography ion trap tandem mass spectrometry

LODs:

limits of detection

LOQs:

limits of quantification

LB:

lower bound

MeOH:

methanol

MON:

moniliformin

MLs:

maximum limits

OTA:

ochratoxin A

QuEChERS:

quick easy cheap effective rugged safe extraction method

SSE:

signal suppression/enhancement

UB:

upper bound

ZEA:

zearalenone

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness AGL 2016-77610R and by the pre-PhD program of University of Valencia “Atracció de Talent” (UV-INV-PREDOC16F1-384781).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Toxicology and Food Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Valencia, Avda. Vicent Andrés Estellés s/n, 46100, Burjassot, Valencia, Spain

    Noelia Pallarés, Houda Berrada, Mónica Fernández-Franzón & Emilia Ferrer

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  1. Noelia Pallarés
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Correspondence to Houda Berrada.

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Pallarés, N., Berrada, H., Fernández-Franzón, M. et al. Risk Assessment and Mitigation of the Mycotoxin Content in Medicinal Plants by the Infusion Process. Plant Foods Hum Nutr 75, 362–368 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11130-020-00820-4

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