Evaluation of a method to determine the natural occurrence of aflatoxins in commercial traditional herbal medicines from Malaysia and Indonesia

Fungal contamination of raw materials of some herbal drugs and recommendation of Cinnamomum camphora oil as herbal fungitoxicant

The paper explores fungal infection and aflatoxin B1 contamination of six medicinal plant samples viz. Adhatoda vasica Nees, Asparagus racemosus Linn., Evolvulus alsinoides Linn., Glycyrrhiza glabra Linn., Plumbago zeylanica Linn. and Terminalia chebula Retz. A total of 858 fungal isolates were detected from the raw materials. Maximum number of fungal isolates was detected from A. racemosus (228). The genus Aspergillus was found to be the most dominant genus causing infection to most of the raw materials. Among the 32 isolates of A. flavus tested, 13 isolates were found to be toxigenic elaborating aflatoxin B1. The highest elaboration of aflatoxin B1 was 394.95 ppb by the isolates of A. flavus from G. glabra. The essential oil of Cinnamomum camphora (L.) Presl showed efficacy in arresting aflatoxin B1 by the toxigenic strain. The growth of a toxigenic strain of A. flavus decreased progressively with increasing concentration of essential oil from leaves of C. camphora. The oil completely inhibited aflatoxin B1 production even at 750 ppm. Hence, the oil of C. camphora is recommended as herbal fungitoxicant against the fungal contamination of the raw materials.

Mycotoxins in botanicals and dried fruits: a review

Botanicals are used in many countries for medicinal and general health-promoting purposes. Numerous natural occurrences of mycotoxins in botanicals and dried fruits have been reported. Aflatoxins or ochratoxin A (OTA) have been found in botanicals such as ginseng, ginger, liquorice, turmeric, and kava-kava in the USA, Spain, Argentina, India, and some other countries, while fumonisins have been found in medicinal wild plants in South Africa and in herbal tea and medicinal plants in Turkey. Zearalenone was identified in ginseng root. Dried fruits can be contaminated with aflatoxins, OTA, kojic acid, and, occasionally, with patulin or zearalenone. One main area of concern is aflatoxins in dried figs; bright greenish yellow fluorescence under ultraviolet light is associated with aflatoxin contamination. OTA in dried vine fruits (raisins, sultanas, and currants) is another concern. There are also reports of aflatoxins in raisins and OTA in dried figs, apricots, dried plums (prunes), dates, and quince. Maximum permitted levels in the European Union include 4 microg kg(-1) for total aflatoxins in dried fruit intended for direct consumption and 10 microg kg(-1) for OTA in dried vine fruit. This review discusses the occurrence of mycotoxins in botanicals and dried fruits and analytical issues such as sampling, sample preparation, and methods for analysis. Fungal contamination of these products, the influence of sorting, storage, and processing, and prevention are also considered.

Biochemical characteristics of the herb mixture Prolipid as a plant food supplement and medicinal remedy

Prolipid a known mixture of herbs is used as a plasma lipid lowering medicine. No side effects were registered. However, the bioactive substances of Prolipid were not investigated. Therefore in this investigation Prolipids bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity were studied. The contents of polyphenols and flavonoids were 19.87 +/- 2.09 and 3.09 +/- 0.31 mg gallic acid equivalent GAE/g DW and 2.09 +/- 0.24 and 0.57 +/- 0.05 mg catechin equivalent CE/g DW in water and methanol fractions, respectively. Anthocyanins (0.02 +/- 0.001 mg/g DW) and flavanols (7.58 +/- 0.81 microg CE/g DW) were found only in water fraction. The antioxidant activity of Prolipid, as determined by four different antioxidant assays [ferric-reducing/antioxidant power (FRAP); cupric reducing antioxidant capacity (CUPRAC); trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC); 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH)], was higher in water than in methanol fraction. The correlation coefficients between polyphenols, flavonoids and antioxidant activities of Prolipid water extracts with TEAC were 0.97 and 0.90, respectively. It can be concluded that the content of polyphenol compounds in Prolipid is very high and they are the main contributors to Prolipids overall antioxidant activity. Prolipid is widely used in human treatment without known side effects on patients and is comparable to other medicinal plants, and as a strong antioxidant mixture could be used as a supplement to known atherosclerosis preventing diets.

Determination of aflatoxins in Chinese medicinal herbs by high-performance liquid chromatography using immunoaffinity column cleanup Improvement of recovery

Although analytical methods are available for the determination of aflatoxins in medicinal herbs, none of them can be applied satisfactorily to all sample matrices. The difficulty arises from the complex chemical composition of the herbs. Recovery is generally low by using immunoaffinity column cleanup due to the acidity of the water extractive leading to a weakened binding affinity. As a solvent for dilution and neutralization, phosphate buffer saline is useful for certain herbs but not for others that have high acidity. The problem can be solved by using 0.1 M phosphate buffer, which has a higher buffering capacity and eliminates sodium chloride. The modified method was validated by the analysis of a certified reference material and shown to be useful for the determination of aflatoxins in herbal samples of high acidity.