Author(s)

Cryssa Tzanidi, Charalampos Proestos, Panagiota Markaki

Department of Chemistry, Laboratory of Food Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.

Aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁) is a carcinogenic metabolite produced by certain Aspergillus species. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of saffron stigmas on A. parasiticus growth and AFB₁ production in Yeast Extract Sucrose (YES) medium. AFB₁ was extracted from cultures and purified with immunoaffinity columns followed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to fluorescence detector (FL) analysis. Methods' recovery and limit of detection were 95.3% and 0.02 ng AFB₁·ml^–1 of YES respectively. Results indicated that AFB₁ production in samples of YES inoculated with A. parasiticus after the addition of saffron dried stigmas (100 mg·flask^–1) was significantly lower (p < 0.05) compared to control samples (inoculated without the addition of saffron stigmas) throughout the entire incubation period (18 days), at the same time as mycelial growth was noticeable. In addition, mycelial growth was observed and AFB₁ was detected, after the 7^th day of observation in cultures with saffron alone. Maximum production was observed on the 12^th day (0.018 μg AFB₁·flask^–1) and on the 9^th day (0.051 μg AFB₁·flask^–1) for samples of YES with the addition of saffron inoculated with A. parasiticus and samples with saffron alone (non-inoculated), respectively. In control samples (inoculated without saffron) the maximum production on the same days 12 and 9 was 75.31 μg AFB₁·flask^–1 and 64 μg AFB₁·flask^–1 respectively. Conclusively when saffron was added to YES inoculated with A. parasiticus, AFB₁ production decreased by 99.9% compared to control cultures without saffron addition. This inhibition can be attributed to the antioxidant capacity of saffron constituents.

Aflatoxin B₁; A. parasiticus; HPLC-FL Analysis; Saffron; Antioxidants

C. Tzanidi, C. Proestos and P. Markaki, "Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) Inhibits Aflatoxin B₁ Production by Aspergillus parasiticus," Advances in Microbiology, Vol. 2 No. 3, 2012, pp. 310-316. doi: 10.4236/aim.2012.23037.