EFFECT OF NATURAL ANTI-FUNGI METABOLITE ON MYCOTOXIN LEVEL IN PEARL MILLET (PENNISETUM GLAUCUM) FROM NIGERIA SIX AGRO-ECOLOGICAL ZONES

Abstract

Mycotoxins are generally known to cause food spoilage, thus different methods both artificial and biological are constantly been exploited to reduce mycotoxin exposure in feed and food. This study compared the relationship between the levels of natural anti-fungi present in pearl millet and the level of mycotoxin in the same cereal. Twenty-four representative pearl millet samples from six agro-ecological zone of Nigeria, were randomly selected for mycotoxin analysis and determination of different metabolites using Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (UHPLC-MS)and Gas Chromatography-High Resolution Time of Flight-Mass Spectrometry (GC-HRTOF-MS) respectively. A total of 21 different mycotoxins were analysed with levels all within the European Union permissible limits, a range of 0.27-1.34 μg/kg was reported for aflatoxin. In the course of this research, 88 different metabolites from PM samples were identified, 34% (30/88) of them have anti-fungi properties consistent with data obtained from previous studies. The commonest anti-fungi product identified were; methyl ester (E,E)- (antifungal), Bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (antifungal),ç-Tocopherol (antifungal).Each sample across the zones has a number of antifungal metabolites ranging from 3-12. Invariably all the samples showed an indirect relationship between concentration of mycotoxin and the number of anti-fungi present in a particular sample. Sample 20 (DS-S)which contained the highest number of metabolites (17)had the lowest concentration for all the mycotoxins except for HT-2, similarly, sample 2 (NGS-S) had the lowest number of antifungal metabolite (3) and recorded high concentration for most of the mycotoxin (AF, FB DON, ZEA and AME and T-2) except for few (OT and HT-2).This work has successfully idently mycotoxin production, this an area worth exploring for possible production of a biological control product from pearl millet.