Presence of a potentially toxigenic Aspergillus species in wheat flour

Abstract

Different types of wheat flour are present in the human nutrition. For the purpose of the milling product processing, as wellas for a direct human consumption, the most significant wheat species are: wheat, rye, corn, rice, buckwheat and others. The most common contaminants of grain flour and their products are molds. Water activity (aw) of the wheat grain and flour, in most cases reach values between 0.70 and 0.86, allowing an optimal growth for a xerophile molds, including Aspergillus species. Some of them synthesize and excrete the secondary metabolites, mycotoxins with different level of toxicity, in a substrate. The aim of this work was to determine of Aspergillus species present in buckwheat, corn and rice flour, as well as the frequency of present species and potentially toxigenic molds. Aspergillus species are isolated from all the samples of flour. It was determinate ten Aspergillus species: Aspergillus flavus, A. Niger. A. versicolor, A. terreus, A. candidus, A. penicillioides, A. glaucus, A. wentii, A. fumigatus and A. sydovii. The isolated Aspergillus species are potentially toxygenic. The most frequently isolated species of Aspergillus was A. flavus (60 %), than A. candidus (33.3 %) and A. Niger (26.67 %).