Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Fluorescence Excitation–Emission Features of Aflatoxin and Related Secondary Metabolites and Their Application for Rapid Detection of Mycotoxins

  • Communication
  • Published:
Food and Bioprocess Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The persistent occurrence of aflatoxins in food and feed remains a problem for producers of commodities subject to colonization with toxigenic molds. Aflatoxins are secondary metabolites of fungi of the Aspergillus spp. associated with deleterious health effects. Because current screening methods for these toxins are lengthy, destructive, and costly, there is a continuous search for a more rapid, noninvasive, and cost-effective technology. The present study utilized a fluorescence excitation–emission matrix (EEM) of aflatoxin as well as two additional secondary metabolites (kojic acid and the bright greenish-yellow fluorescence (BGYF) compound) of Aspergillus flavus measured with a fluorescence spectrophotometer. The results were compared to image data acquired with a fluorescence hyperspectral sensor in order to evaluate the potential of image-based technology for detecting aflatoxin in grain. The excitation–emission matrix of aflatoxin B1 standard produced overlapping peaks in 340–400 nm of excitation range emitting in the blue range at around 450 nm. The spectral signature extracted from the hyperspectral image was also in the blue range, emitting blue fluorescence. Because the results from both systems were comparable, where all fluorescence peaks were in the blue range, the present study validates the feasibility of image-based technology for nondestructive detection of aflatoxin in corn. Additional peaks were revealed in the aflatoxin EEM in the 260-nm excitation range that were not present in the kojic acid and BGYF compound mixture. This new information allows for the separation of the aflatoxin signature from the potentially confounding overlap of other secondary metabolites occurring in the blue and blue-green spectral ranges.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

References

  • Abbas, H. K., Williams, W. P., Windham, G. L., Pringle, H. C., III, Xie, W., & Shier, W. T. (2002). Aflatoxin and fumonisin contamination of commercial corn (Zea mays) hybrids in Mississippi. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 50, 5246–5254.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, J. W., & Klich, M. (2003). Mycotoxins. Clinical Microbiology Reviews, 16(3), 497–516.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Blesa, J., Soriano, J. M., Moltó, J. C., Marín, R., & Mañes, J. (2003). Determination of aflatoxins in peanuts by matrix solid-phase dispersion and liquid chromatography. Journal of Chromatography A, 1011, 49–54.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, R. L., Chen, Z. Y., Cleveland, T. E., & Russin, J. S. (1999). Advances in the development of host resistance to aflatoxin contamination by Aspergillus flavus. Phytopathology, 89, 113–117.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chan, D., MacDonald, S. J., Boughtflower, V., & Brereton, P. (2004). Simultaneous determination of aflatoxins and ochratoxin A in food using a fully automated immunoaffinity column clean-up and liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection. Journal of Chromatography A, 1059, 13–16.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cigić, I. K., & Prosen, H. (2009). An overview of conventional and emerging analytical methods for the determination of mycotoxins. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 10, 62–115.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fujita, K., Tsuta, M., Kokawa, M., & Sugiyama, J. (2010). Detection of deoxynivalenol using fluorescence excitation–emission matrix. Food and Bioprocess Technology, 3, 922–927.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gowen, A. A., O’Donnell, C. P., Cullen, P. J., Downey, G., & Frias, J. M. (2007). Hyperspectral imaging-an emerging process analytical tool for food quality and safety control. Trends in Food Science and Technology, 18(12), 590–598.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Guo, B. Z., Holbrook, C. C., Yu, J., Lee, R. D., & Lynch, R. E. (2005). Application of technology of gene expression in response to drought stress and elimination of preharvest aflatoxin contamination. In Abbas (Ed.), Aflatoxin and food safety. Boca Raton: CRC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guo, B., Chen, Z. Y., Dewey Lee, R., & Scully, B. T. (2008). Drought stress and preharvest aflatoxin contamination in agricultural commodity: genetics, genomics and proteomics. Journal of Integrative Plant Biology, 50(10), 1281–1291.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jacks, T. J. (2004). Spectrofluorometric determination of hypohalites and peroxyacids using kojic acid. Analytical Letters, 37(6), 1177–1184.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Karoui, R., & Blecker, C. (2010). Fluorescence spectroscopy measurement for quality assessment of food systems. Review. Food and Bioprocess Technology, 4(3), 364.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, M. S., Chao, K., Chan, D. E., Yang, C., Lefcourt, A. M., & Delwiche, S. R. (2011). Hyperspectral and multispectral imaging technique for food quality and safety inspection. In Cho & Kang (Eds.), Emerging technologies for food quality and food safety inspection. New York: CRC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, L. S., Parrish, F. W., & Jacks, T. J. (1986). Substrate depletion during formation of aflatoxin and kojic acid on corn inoculated with Aspergillus flavus. Mycopathologia, 93(2), 105–107.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lefcourt, A. M., Kim, M. S., & Chen, Y. R. (2005). A transportable fluorescence imagining system for detecting fecal contaminants. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 48(1), 63–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lillehoj, E. B., Jacks, T. J., & Calvert, O. H. (1986). Aflatoxin estimation in corn by measurement of bright greenish-yellow fluorescence in aqueous extracts. Journal of Food Protection, 49(8), 623–626.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ministry of Health Labour and Welfar, Japan (2011) Notice no. 0131.5 of 31 March 2011. Department of Food Safety, Pharmaceutical and Food Safety Bureau, Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare, Japan.

  • Ono, E. Y. S., da Silva, M., Ribeiro, R. M. R., Ono, M. A., Hayashi, L., Garcia, G. T., et al. (2010). Comparison of thin-layer chromatography, spectrofluorimetry and bright greenish-yellow fluorescence test for aflatoxin detection in corn. Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology, 53(3), 687–692.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Payne, G. A. (1998). Process of contamination by aflatoxin-producing fungi and their impact on crops. In Sinha & Bhatnagar (Eds.), Mycotoxins in agriculture and food safety. New York: Marcel Dekker.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robens, J. F., & Cardwell, K. (2005). The cost of mycotoxin management in the United States. In Abbas (Ed.), Aflatoxin and food safety. Boca Raton: CRC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh, C. B., Jayas, D. S., Paliwal, J., & White, N. D. G. (2007). Fungal detection in wheat using near-infrared hyperspectral imaging. Transactions of ASABE, 50(6), 2171–2176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sun, D. W. (Ed.). (2010). Hyperspectral imaging for food quality analysis and control. London: Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tarín, A., Rosell, M. G., & Guardino, X. (2004). Use of high-performance liquid chromatography to assess airborne mycotoxins—aflatoxins and ochratoxin A. Journal of Chromatography A, 1047, 235–240.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsuta, M., Miyashita, K., Suzuki, T., Nakauchi, S., Sagara, Y., & Sugiyama, J. (2007). Three-dimensional visualization of internal structural changes in soybean seeds during germination by excitation-emission matrix imaging. Transactions of ASABE, 50, 2127–2136.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsuta M, Masry GE, Sugiyama T, Fujita K & Sugiyama J (2009) Comparison between linear discrimination analysis and support vector machine for detecting pesticide on spinach leaf by hyperspectral imaging with excitation-emission matrix. In: ESANN 2009 proceedings, European symposium on artificial neural networks—advances in computational intelligence and learning. Bruges, Belgium, ISBN 2-930307-09-9.

  • Vargas, A. M., Kim, M. S., Tao, Y., & Lefcourt, A. M. (2005). Detection of fecal contamination on cantaloupes using hypersepctral fluorescence imagery. Journal of Food Sciences, 70(8), 471–476.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Y., Chai, T., Lu, G., Quan, C., Duan, H., Yao, M., et al. (2008). Simultaneous detection of airborne aflatoxin, ochratoxin and zearalenone in a poultry house by immunoaffinity clean-up and high-performance liquid chromatography. Environmental Research, 107, 139–144.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, P., Manley, M., Fox, G., & Geladi, P. (2010). Indirect detection of Fusarium verticillioides in maize (Zea mays L.) kernels by near infrared hyperspectral imaging. Journal of Near Infrared Spectroscopy, 18(1), 49–58.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yan, Y., Li, H., & Myrick, M. L. (2000). Fluorescence fingerprint of waters: excitation-emission matrix spectroscopy as a tracking tool. Applied Spectroscopy, 54(10), 1539–1542.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yao, H., Hruska, Z., Kincaid, R., Brown, R. L., Cleveland, T. E., & Bhatnagar, D. (2010). Correlation and classification of single kernel fluorescence hyperspectral data with aflatoxin concentration in corn kernels inoculated with Aspergillus flavus spores. Food Additives and Contaminants, 27(5), 701–709.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zeringue, H. J., Jr., & Shih, B. Y. (1998). Extraction and separation of the bright greenish-yellow fluorescent material from aflatoxigenic Aspergillus spp. infected cotton lint by HPLC-UV/FL. Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, 46, 1071–1075.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zeringue, H. J., Jr., Shih, B. Y., Maskos, K., & Grimm, D. (1999). Identification of the bright greenish-yellow fluorescence (BGY-F) compound on cotton lint associated with aflatoxin contamination in cottonseed. Phytochemistry, 52, 1391–1397.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Funding for this study was provided by the cooperative agreement no. 58-6435-3-121 between USDA and MSU. The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance provided by Professor Laodong Guo and his graduate student Zhengzhen Zhou from the University of Southern Mississippi for EEM data acquisition and instrumentation expertise, and Mr. Lee Hathcock (Mississippi State University) for radiometric calibration of the hyperspectral data.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geosystems Research Institute, Mississippi State University, MSU Science and Technology Center, 1021 Balch Boulevard, Stennis Space Center, MS, 39529, USA

    Zuzana Hruska, Haibo Yao & Russell Kincaid

  2. Southern Regional Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, 1100 Robert E. Lee Boulevard, New Orleans, LA, 70124, USA

    Robert Brown, Thomas Cleveland & Deepak Bhatnagar

Authors
  1. Zuzana Hruska
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Haibo Yao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Russell Kincaid
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Robert Brown
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Thomas Cleveland
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Deepak Bhatnagar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zuzana Hruska.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hruska, Z., Yao, H., Kincaid, R. et al. Fluorescence Excitation–Emission Features of Aflatoxin and Related Secondary Metabolites and Their Application for Rapid Detection of Mycotoxins. Food Bioprocess Technol 7, 1195–1201 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-014-1265-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-014-1265-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation