Peanut meal containing aflatoxins was heat treated in the presence of moisture and chemicals to reduce the aflatoxin content. Treatments with ammonia, methylamine, sodium hydroxide and ozone were effective in either destroying afiatoxins or greatly reducing aflatoxin levels as indicated both by TLC analysis and feeding experiments with ducklings and rats. Weight gains for animals receiving the treated meals were essentially comparable to those for animals receiving aflatoxin-free meal. The treated meMs, however, had somewhat reduced protein efficiency ratios, as indicated by rat feeding tests. Complete elimination of aflatoxins from contaminated peanut meal was achieved by extraction with a 90% acetone-]0% water (w/w) solvent system. The extracted aflatoxin-free peanut meal gave good growth in the duckling and rat feeding tests, and had a relatively high protein efficiency ratio.

error in Ea" it must be assumed that the source of the discrepancy lies in certain simplifying assumptions inherent in the B.E.T. calculations. The discrepancy may be due to the fact that in the theory Ea, is assumed to be equal to El, while the experimental results show that Ea, is actually about 25% higher than El. ACKNOWLEDGMENTAcknowledgment is made to Marjory Galvin for assistance with measurements and to T. M. Shaw and F. Stitt for helpful suggestions.

SummaryProcessing conditions, particularly cooking procedures, have a marked influence on the chemical properties of screw‐pressed meal and oil. Cooking prepared meats at 240–250°F., as in normal mill practice, produced meals with low free gossypol content but at the expense of considerable protein damage. The resultant crude oils showed some color reversion upon storage at 95°F. Dry cooking (7% moisture) at temperatures not exceeding 200°F. gave meals of improved chemical properties, but the crude oils exhibited considerable color reversion on storage.Wet low‐temperature cooking (200–210°F.), followed by evaporative cooling, yielded a meal intermediate in quality between that for normal mill practice and dry low‐temperature cooking. The crude oils, which corresponded to hydraulic‐pressed oil, did not exhibit any appreciable color reversion upon storage at elevated temperatures.The selection of processing conditions, notably cooking, enables wide variations in the distribution of gossypol between meal and oil.The increase in the bleach color of crude oils stored at 95–100°F. was found to be directly related to the initial gossypol content of the crude oils.

Summary Results are reported of a series of experimental treatments of flaked castor bean meats and pomaces directed toward total detoxification of the ricin and total destruction or inactivation of the allergenic property. The treatments comprised cooking of the flaked raw meats or pomaces under various conditions of moisture and temperature, with chemicals such as sodium hydroxide, hydrochloric acid, sodium hypochlorite, formaldehyde, ammonia, ammonium sulfate, potassium permanganate, and urea, and with selected combinations of these. Also tried were aerobic fermentation, enzymatic digestion, and simple heating of pomaces at elevated temperatures. The five most promising deallergeuization treatments and the corresponding percentage reductions in allergen content as measured by the precipitin test were as follows: dry heating of pomace to 401°F., 100%; moist‐cooking of flaked meats with 2% NaOH and 10% HCHO, possibly 100%; moist‐cooking with 0.9% HCl and 3% HCHO, possibly 100%; moist‐cooking with 2% NaOH at 20 psig. pressure, possibly 100%; moist‐cooking with 1% NaOH, 98.4%. For the first four treatments the Schultz‐Dale test indicated possible reductions of 100, 99.9, 99.9, and 100%, respectively. While the latter method is generally considered to be reasonably accurate, final tests would have to be conducted with naturally sensitive human subjects. The data also showed that the ricin component can be completely detoxified by a mild moist‐cooking of the flaked meats, either with or without added alkali.

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