A preliminary survey of aflatoxin in fresh and dried vegetables in Minna, Nigeria

Abstract

Aflatoxins are a group of fungal toxins that contaminate foods and feeds with adverse health impact on human beings and animals. A total of sixty vegetable samples comprising of 30 fresh and 30 dried samples were analyzed for the four major aflatoxins B1, B2, G1 and G2 using High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The vegetable samples were made up of baobab leaves (Adansonia digitata) (20), okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) (20) and red hot chili pepper (RCP) (Capsicum annuum) (20) from Minna, Nigeria. The mycotoxins were not found in baobab leaves and okra but detected in 60% of the hot chili pepper samples analyzed at a total aflatoxin concentration of up 19.45µg/kg. Ten of the twenty hot chili samples had aflatoxin concentrations above the European Union maximum tolerance level of 4µg/kg for total aflatoxin which raises public health concern.