Encyclopedia > Aflatoxin

  Article Content

Aflatoxin

Aflatoxin is a naturally occurring mycotoxin[?] produced by two types of mold, Aspergillus flavus[?] and Aspergillus parasiticus[?]. Aspergillus flavus is common and widespread in nature and is most often found when certain grains are grown under stressful conditions such as drought. The mold occurs in soil, decaying vegetation, hay, and grains undergoing microbiological deterioration and invades all types of organic substrates whenever and wherever the conditions are favorable for its growth. Favorable conditions include high moisture content and high temperature. At least 13 different types of aflatoxin are produced in nature with aflatoxin B1 considered as the most toxic. While the presence of Aspergillus flavus[?] does not always indicate harmful levels of aflatoxin it does mean that the potential for aflatoxin production is present.



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Digital Rights Management

... can be used by the criminal as a means of preventing enforcement of laws against fraud and other wrongdoing. Since DRM is unlikely to be so used by individuals, only ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 36.9 ms