Aflatoxigenic contamination of freshly harvested white maize (Zea mays L.) from some selected Ugandan districts
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Food Science and Technology, Toxicology
- Keywords
- Uganda, Total Aflatoxin, Moisture content, Mayuge, Hoima, Mubende, Aspergillus flavus, Freshly harvested, Zea mays L.
- Copyright
- © 2019 Omara
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2019. Aflatoxigenic contamination of freshly harvested white maize (Zea mays L.) from some selected Ugandan districts. PeerJ Preprints 7:e27888v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27888v1
Abstract
The moisture content and total aflatoxin (AF) content of 27 samples of freshly harvested white maize (Zea mays L.) from Mubende (n = 3), Ibanda (n = 3), Jinja (n = 3), Mayuge (n = 3) , Buikwe (n = 3), Hoima (n = 3), Mpigi (n = 3), Masindi (n = 3) and Bugiri (n = 3) districts of Uganda representing the agroecological zones: Lake Victoria crescent, Western Highlands, South East and Lake Albert Crescent were determined in the second season harvest of January 2019 to March 2019. Moisture content ranged from 12.9 to 18.8% (mean moisture content varied from 13.9±0.35-17.2±1.55%) with the highest moisture recorded in maize from Ibanda. The highest mean AF contamination of 11.0±3.01 μg/kg was recorded in maize from Hoima while the lowest AF content of 3.8±1.30 μg/kg was recorded in maize from Mpigi. Despite the fact that all the samples had detectable aflatoxins, none of the maize samples had aflatoxin greater than WHO regulatory limit of 20 μg/kg. White maize in Uganda are precontaminated by aflatoxins prior to harvest. Whereas the spectre of aflatoxigenic contamination of foods remains a ticklish challenge to address, strategic adaptation and deployment of appropriate interventions can help secure a safe harvest. Farmers should plant maize varieties with established maturity periods to ensure timely harvesting. Further research should assess the presence of other mycotoxins as zearalenone, sterigmatocystin, ochratoxin A, citrinin, vomitoxin and diacetoxyscirpenol that may co-occur with aflatoxins in freshly harvested maize.
Author Comment
This is a short communication report for submission to peer J Preprints