iPedia Free Information Center

Information about Mycotoxin

Part of a series on
Toxicology and poison
Toxicology (Forensic) - Toxinology
History of poison
(ICD-10 , ICD-9 )
Concepts
Poison - Toxicant - Antidote
Acceptable daily intake - Acute toxicity - Bioaccumulation -Fixed Dose Procedure - LD50 - Lethal dose - Toxic capacity - Toxicity Class
Toxins and venoms
Neurotoxin - Necrotoxin - Hemotoxin - Mycotoxin - Aflatoxin - Phototoxin
List of fictional toxins
Incidents
Bradford - Minamata - Niigata - Alexander Litvinenko - Bhopal
2007 pet food recalls
List of poisonings
Poisoning types
Elements
Lead - Mercury - Cadmium - Fluoride - Iron - Arsenic - Oxygen
Seafood
Shellfish (Paralytic - Diarrheal - Neurologic - Amnesic) - Ciguatera - Scombroid - Tetrodotoxin
Other substances
Pesticide - Organophosphate - Food - Nicotine - Theobromine - Carbon monoxide - Vitamin - Medicines
Living organisms
Mushrooms - Plants - Animals
Related topics
Hazard symbol - Carcinogen - Mutagen - List of Extremely Hazardous Substances - Biological warfare
Mycotoxin (from the Greek μύκης (mykes, mukos) "fungus") is a toxin produced by an organism of the fungus kingdom, which includes mushrooms, molds and yeasts. Most fungi are aerobic (use oxygen). Fungi are found almost everywhere in extremely small quantities because of their spores, and are most commonly microscopically small. They consume organic matter, wherever humidity and temperature are sufficient.

Where conditions are right, fungi proliferate into colonies and mycotoxin levels become high. Toxins vary greatly in their severity. Some fungi produce severe toxins only at specific levels of moisture, temperature or oxygen in the air. Some toxins are lethal, some cause identifiable diseases or health problems, some weaken the immune system without producing symptoms specific to that toxin, some act as allergens or irritants, and some have no known effect on humans. Some mycotoxins generally have more negative impacts on farm animal populations than on humans. Some mycotoxins are harmful to other micro-organisms such as other fungi or even bacteria; penicillin is one example.

Mycotoxins can appear in the food chain as a result of fungal infection of crops, either by being eaten directly by humans, or by being used as livestock feed. Mycotoxins greatly resist decomposition or being broken down in digestion, so they remain in the food chain in meat and dairy products. Even temperature treatments, such as cooking and freezing, do not destroy mycotoxins.

Buildings are another source of mycotoxins. Public concern over mycotoxins increased following multi-million dollar toxic mold settlements in the 1990s. The negative health effects of mycotoxins are a function of the concentration, the duration of exposure and the subject's sensitivities. The concentrations experienced in a normal home, office or school are often too low to trigger a health response in occupants.

Food-based mycotoxins were studied extensively worldwide throughout the 20th century. In Europe, statutory levels of a range of mycotoxins permitted in food and animal feed are set by a range of European directives and Commission regulations.

Various wild mushrooms also contain an assortment of mycotoxins that can cause noteworthy health problems for humans who eat wild mushrooms without first properly identifying the specimens as safe edibles, in such cases sometimes causing mild to catastrophic mushroom poisoning. The bulk of this article, however, is about mycotoxins that are found in fungi other than mushrooms.

Major groups of food toxins

Aflatoxins are produced by Aspergillus species, and are largely associated with commodities produced in the tropics and subtropics, such as groundnuts, other edible nuts, figs, spices and maize. Aflatoxin B1, the most toxic, is a potent carcinogen and has been associated with liver cancer.

Ochratoxin A is produced by Penicillium verrucosum, which is generally associated with temperate climates, and Aspergillus species which grow in warm humid conditions. Aspergillus ochraceus is found as a contaminant of a wide range of commodities including cereals and their products, fruit and a wide range of beverages and spices. Aspergillus carbonarius is the other main species associated in warm humid conditions found mainly on vine fruit and dried vine products particularly in the Mediterranean basin. It causes kidney damage in humans and is a potential carcinogen.

Patulin is associated with a range of fungal species and is found in moldy fruits, vegetables, cereals and other foods. It is destroyed by alcoholic fermentation and so is not found in alcoholic drinks. It may be carcinogenic and is reported to damage the immune system and nervous systems in animals.

Fusarium toxins are produced by several species of the genus Fusarium which infect the grain of developing cereals such as wheat and maize. They include a range of mycotoxins including the fumonisins, which affect the nervous systems of horses and cause cancer in rodents; and the trichothecenes, including deoxynivalenol, and zearalenone, the last two of which are very stable and can survive cooking. The trichothecenes are acutely toxic to humans, causing sickness and diarrhea and potentially death.

Stachybotrys and Penicillium

Mycotoxin binding agents and deactivators

In the feed and food industry it had become common practice to add mycotoxin binding agents such as Montmorillonite or bentonite clay. To reverse the adverse effects of mycotoxins, the following criteria are used to evaluate the functionality of any binding additive:
  1. Efficacy of active component verified by scientific data
  2. A low effective inclusion rate
  3. Stability over a wide pH range
  4. High capacity to adsorb high concentrations of mycotoxins
  5. High affinity to adsorb low concentrations of mycotoxins interactions between toxins
  6. Affirmation of chemical interaction between mycotoxin and adsorbent
  7. Proven in-vivo data with all major mycotoxins
  8. Non-toxic, environmentally friendly component


Since not all mycotoxins can be bound to such agents, the latest approach to mycotoxin control is mycotoxin deactivation. By means of enzymes (esterase, expoxidase), yeast (Trichosporon mycotoxinvorans) or bacterial strains (Eubacterium BBSH 797), mycotoxins are detoxified to non-toxic metabolites.

Mycotoxins killing humans

In 2004 in Kenya 125 people died and nearly 200 others were treated after eating aflatoxin contaminated maize. [1] The deaths were mainly associated with homegrown maize that had not been treated with fungicides or properly dried before storage. Due to food shortages at the time, farmers may have been harvesting maize earlier than normal to prevent thefts from their fields, so that the grain had not fully matured and was more susceptible to infection.

Mycotoxins killing pets

Since the 1990s it has been widely acknowledged that pet food can also contain mycotoxins.[2]

Mycotoxins in fiction

A fictional application of a mycotoxin occurs in William Gibson's seminal novel Neuromancer, in which Case, the anti-hero, is punished by some of his business partners for stealing from them by being administered a "Russian mycotoxin", which alters his nervous tissue and renders him unable to access cyberspace.

References

1. ^ Lewis, Lauren & et al (2005), "Aflatoxin Contamination of Commercial Maize Products during an Outbreak of Acute Aflatoxicosis in Eastern and Central Kenya", Environmental Health Perspectives 113, <[1]
2. ^ Susan S. Lang (2006-01-06). Dogs keep dying: Too many owners remain unaware of toxic dog food. Cornell University Chronicle.

See Also

External links

Toxicology (from the Greek words toxicos and logos) is the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms.[1] It is the study of symptoms, mechanisms, treatments and detection of poisoning, especially the poisoning of people.
..... Click the link for more information.
Forensic toxicology is the use of toxicology and other disciplines such as analytical chemistry, pharmacology and clinical chemistry to aid medicolegal investigation of death, poisoning, and drug use.
..... Click the link for more information.
This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject.
Please help recruit one or [ improve this article] yourself. See the talk page for details.
..... Click the link for more information.
history of poisons[1] stretches over a period from before 4500 BC to the present day. Poisons have been used for many purposes across the span of human existence as weapons, anti-venoms and medicines.
..... Click the link for more information.
poisons are substances that can cause damage, illness, or death to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism.
..... Click the link for more information.
A toxicant is a chemical compound that has an effect on organisms. Toxicants are typically introduced into the environment by human activity.The effects depend on the concentration of the compound.
..... Click the link for more information.
An antidote is a substance which can counteract a form of poisoning.

Sometimes, the antidote for a particular toxin is manufactured by injecting the toxin into an animal in small doses and the resulting antibodies are extracted from the animals' blood.
..... Click the link for more information.
Acceptable Daily Intake or ADI is a measure of the amount of a specific substance (usually a food additive, or a residue of a veterinary drug or pesticide) in food or drinking water that can be ingested (orally) over a lifetime without an appreciable health risk.
..... Click the link for more information.
Acute toxicity describes the adverse effects of a substance which result either from a single exposure[1] or from multiple exposures in a short space of time (usually less than 24 hours).
..... Click the link for more information.
Bioaccumulation occurs when an organism absorbs a toxic substance at a rate greater than that at which the substance is lost. Thus, the longer the biological half-life of the substance the greater the risk of chronic poisoning, even if environmental levels of the toxin are very
..... Click the link for more information.
The fixed-dose procedure (FDP) was proposed in 1984 to assess a substance's acute oral toxicity using fewer animals with less suffering than the older LD50 test developed in 1927.
..... Click the link for more information.
A lethal dose (LD) is an indication of the lethality of a given substance or type of radiation. Because resistance varies from one individual to another, the 'lethal dose' represents a dose (usually recorded as dose per kilogram of subject body weight) at which a given
..... Click the link for more information.
Toxic capacity can mean the toxicity of a substance, possibly in relation to a specific organism and toxic capacity can mean the capacity of an organism, organic system or ecosystem to contain a toxic substance or a selection of toxic substances (a compound) without showing
..... Click the link for more information.
Toxicity Class refers to a classification system for pesticides created by a national or international government-related or -sponsored organization. It addresses the acute toxicity of agents such as soil fumigants, fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, miticides, molluscicides,
..... Click the link for more information.
toxin (Greek: τοξικόν, toxikon, lit. (poison) for use on arrows) is a poisonous substance produced by living cells or organisms.
..... Click the link for more information.
Venom (literally, poison of animal origin) is any of a variety of toxins used by certain types of animals, for the purpose of defense and hunting. Generally, venom is injected while other toxins are absorbed by ingestion or through the skin.
..... Click the link for more information.
A neurotoxin is a toxin that acts specifically on nerve cells – neurons – usually by interacting with membrane proteins such as ion channels. Many of the venoms and other toxins that organisms use in defense against vertebrates are neurotoxins.
..... Click the link for more information.
Necrosis (in Greek Νεκρός = Dead) is the name given to accidental death of cells and living tissue. Necrosis is less orderly than apoptosis, which is part of programmed cell death.
..... Click the link for more information.
Hemotoxins, haemotoxins or hematotoxins are toxins that destroy red blood cells (that is, cause hemolysis), disrupt blood clotting, and/or cause organ degeneration and generalized tissue damage.
..... Click the link for more information.
Aflatoxins are naturally occurring mycotoxins that are produced by many species of Aspergillus, a fungus, most notably Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. Aflatoxins are toxic and carcinogenic.
..... Click the link for more information.
Phototoxins are toxins that can cause allergic reactions in particularly susceptible individuals and which can cause dangerous photosensitivity in a much broader range of subjects.
..... Click the link for more information.
Daylight.

Fictional chemical weapons

This is the list of fictional chemical weapons. Fictional chemical weapons are toxins that are used on large scale, by either military, paramilitary or terrorist organizations.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Bradford sweets poisoning was the accidental arsenic poisoning of more than 200 people in Bradford, England in 1858; an estimated 20 people died when sweets accidentally made with arsenic were sold from a market stall.
..... Click the link for more information.
Minamata disease
Classification & external resources

The crippled hand of a Minamata disease victim (W. E. Smith)
ICD-10 T56.1
ICD-9 985.0

MedlinePlus 001651

Minamata disease
..... Click the link for more information.
Niigata Minamata disease
Classification & external resources

The crippled hand of a Minamata disease victim
ICD-10 T56.1
ICD-9 985.0

MedlinePlus 001651

Niigata Minamata disease
..... Click the link for more information.
Alexander Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was hospitalised. He died three weeks later, becoming the first known victim of lethal polonium-210-induced acute radiation syndrome.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Bhopal Disaster took place in the early hours of the morning of December 3 1984,[1] in the heart of the city of Bhopal in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
..... Click the link for more information.
2007 pet food recalls comprise the contamination and wide recall of many brands of cat and dog foods beginning in March 2007 and the ensuing developments involving the human food supply.
..... Click the link for more information.
This is a list of poisonings in chronological order of victim. It also includes confirmed attempted and fictional poisonings. Many of the people listed here committed or attempted to commit suicide by poison; others were poisoned by others.
..... Click the link for more information.
Lead poisoning
Classification & external resources

ICD-10 T 56.0
ICD-9 984.9

Lead poisoning is a medical condition, also known as saturnism, plumbism or painter's colic, caused by increased blood lead levels.
..... Click the link for more information.


This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus


page counter