Occurrence of Aflatoxins in Herbal Medicine Distributed in South Korea

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the occurrence of aflatoxins in herbal medicines distributed in South Korea. A total of 700 herbal medicine samples (10 samples each for 70 types of herbal medicine) were analyzed by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for aflatoxin B(1) (AFB(1)), and levels of total aflatoxins were quantified and confirmed by liquid chromatography combined with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The levels of recovery of the methods were 84.30 to 102.68% (ELISA for AFB(1)) and 72.17 to 90.92% (LC-MS/MS for total aflatoxins). Fifty-eight (8.29%) of 700 samples were AFB(1) positive by ELISA, and 17 (2.43%) of them were finally confirmed as positive for total aflatoxins by LC-MS/MS. Total aflatoxin levels in the herbal medicines were from 4.51 to 108.42 μg/kg. Among the 17 samples, the AFB(1) content of 6 samples (11.95 to 73.27 μg/kg) and the total aflatoxin content of 10 (12.12 to 108.42 μg/kg) samples exceeded the legal limits set by the Korea Food and Drug Administration for AFB(1) (10 μg/kg) and by the European Commission for total aflatoxins (10 μg/kg), respectively. These results demonstrate the risk to consumers of herbal medicine contamination by aflatoxins and encourage further studies to investigate the transfer rate of mycotoxins to decoction, which is the final product for consumption.

Analysis of the Fungal Community in Ziziphi Spinosae Semen through High-Throughput Sequencing

“…Herbal medicines, which are commonly used to prevent, diagnose, and cure diseases, have played an important role in health care since ancient times [1]. However, many studies have described the occurrence of mycotoxins in medicinal plants and herbal medicines from various countries [2,3,4], thereby attracting considerable attention worldwide due to drug efficacy and safety. For instance, 58 (8.29%) and 17 (2.43%) of the 700 herbal medicine samples in South Korea are aflatoxin B 1 (AFB 1 )- and total aflatoxin (AF)-positive, respectively, and the AFB 1 (up to 73.27 mg/kg) and total aflatoxin contents (up to 108.42 mg/kg) in some samples exceeded the legal limits (10 mg/kg) [2].…”

“…However, many studies have described the occurrence of mycotoxins in medicinal plants and herbal medicines from various countries [2,3,4], thereby attracting considerable attention worldwide due to drug efficacy and safety. For instance, 58 (8.29%) and 17 (2.43%) of the 700 herbal medicine samples in South Korea are aflatoxin B 1 (AFB 1 )- and total aflatoxin (AF)-positive, respectively, and the AFB 1 (up to 73.27 mg/kg) and total aflatoxin contents (up to 108.42 mg/kg) in some samples exceeded the legal limits (10 mg/kg) [2]. Both AFs and ochratoxin A (OTA) are detected in all Glycyrrhiza uralensis samples (six moldy and nine normal samples) that were collected from different areas in China [5].…”

Determination of Aflatoxins in Medicinal Plants by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry

“…An alternative complex media based method is reported to detect the natural fluorescence of aflatoxins released by the growing mycelium (47) or relies on multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) detection of genes or their transcripts involved in the aflatoxin biosynthetic pathway (48,49). An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for AFB 1 , and levels of total aflatoxins were quantified and confirmed by liquid chromatography combined with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) (50). However, a lot of time and a tedious pre-or post-column derivatization is required with conventional HPLC in order to provide better detection limits of AFB 1 , AFB 2 , AFG 1 and AFG 2 (51).…”

Development and evaluation of the magnetic particle-based chemiluminescence immunoassay for rapid and quantitative detection of Aflatoxin B1 in foodstuff

“…To minimize the potential exposure to the aflatoxins, many countries have built the maximum regulatory standard and have strict control over the residue level for AFB1. On the basis of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) standard, the worldwide maximum tolerated levels of Aflatoxin B1 were reported to be in the range of 1-20 µg/kg in food, and 5-50 µg/kg in dietary cattle feed in 2003 (Shim, Kyeongyeol, Ofori, Chung Y, & Chung, 2012). Even though the usage of AFB1 is prohibited, it is frequently present in commercial animal foods and various edible food samples in levels higher than the maximum acceptable limit.…”