Detecting and controlling mycotoxin contamination of herbs and spices 19
Elshafie et al., (2002) detected mycobiota of seven different spices from a group
consisting of one hundred and five samples. Coriander was found to be the most
heavily fungal contaminated among the spices (18 out of 20) followed by black
pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cumin, and cardamom. Clove was the least contaminated
spice due to its microbial inhibitory effect. Cinnamon was found to be contaminated
by a number of fungi (11 out of 20) including potentially mycotoxin producing fungi.
Fifteen samples of spices (ginger, cumin, cinnamon, clove, black pepper, cardamom,
ginger and coriander) that were heavily contaminated by A. flavus were screened for
the presence of aflatoxins using HPLC. No aflatoxins were detected on the samples.
Of the seven spices studied, clove was found to be the least contaminated, while
cumin was the most heavily contaminated.
Medicinal plants such as peppermint, chamomile, anise, caraway and tilio were
analysed for moulds and aflatoxins (Abou-Arab et al., 1999). Samples were
collected randomly from the Egyptian market. Aspergillus and Penicillium genera
were more frequently detected and in greater abundance in the samples than
other genera of fungi. For the A. flavus infection, the results showed that all tested
medicinal plants were infected with the exception of packed tilio. The highest percentage
of infection was in peppermint (15.8%) followed by non-packed tilio (15.4%) as
well as non-packed caraway (13.5%). The other tested medicinal plants showed
a low percentage of A. flavus. However, natural aflatoxin contamination was not
detected.
Rizzo et al., (2004) studied toxigenic fungi on 56 species of medicinal and aromatic
herbs, which were used as raw material for drugs in Argentina. A. flavus and A.
parasiticus were the predominant species isolated, 50% out of 40 isolates were
toxigenic, 26% of isolates produced OTA in low concentrations, 27% of the isolates
were F. verticilloides and F. proliferatum, which produced fumonisin B 1 and fumonisin
B 2. Other Fusarium species were able to produce neither group A and B trichothecenes
nor zearalenone.
Martins et al., (2001) studied microbiological quality of seven species (chamomile,
leaves of orange tree, flower soft linden, corn silk, marine alga, pennyroyal mint and
garden sage) of 62 medicinal plants in Lisbon, Portugal. Corn silk samples were the
most contaminated. Fusarium spp., Penicillium spp., A. flavus and A. niger were
predominant in all samples with the exception of garden sage.
1.4 Detecting mycotoxins in herbs and spices
Various methods have been published to determine the mycotoxin content of foodstuffs
by international organisations such as the Association of Official Analytical Chemists
(AOAC), the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), the European
Standardization Committee (CEN). However, an official method related to the
determination of mycotoxin in herbs and spices does not exist. The aim of this
section is not to repeat a specific method developed by the official bodies mentioned
above, but to present information regarding issues to be considered during method
selection and application for herbs and spices together with alternative methods that
can be used in mycotoxin analyses of herbs and spices and the recent development in
the field.