Abstract—This study aimed to determine the presence of major mycotoxins of human and animal importance, namely total aflatoxins, fumonisin, deoxynivalenol, zearalenon, T-2 toxin and HT-2 toxin in samples from corn grown in different regions in Turkey. 770 corn samples in total were taken from Çukurova, Sakarya (Adapazarı), Bursa (Karacabey), İzmir (Torbalı), Mersin (Tarsus), Adana (Kozan) ve Şanlıurfa regions between August and November 2015. 625 of the samples were used for total aflatoxin analyses by LC-MS/MS. For other toxin analyses (Fumonisin B1, Fumonisin B2, DON, Zearalenone, T-2 and HT-2) 29 samples were blended for each toxin. The results showed that the highest contamination and risk arises from fumonisin toxins (2652 μg/kg). Mycotoxin contamination in analysed samples was found to be 1.03%. Total aflatoxin was detected as 3.44% (1 of 625), total fumonisin as 17.24% (5 of 29) and zearalenon as 6.89% (2 of 29). None of the samples were found to contain more than one of the analysed mycotoxins. Also, no DON, T-2 or HT-2 toxin was found. In conclusion, the findings of our study on corn produced in Turkey shows that in some regions contamination levels of corn by mycotoxins exceed the legal limits. Supplying contaminated corn and corn products to human and animal consumption may result in serious health problems, moreover it is known that some toxicogenic fungi may cause decrease in quality and yield in corn production. 
 

Index Terms—corn, mycotoxin, LC-MS/MS

Cite: Nevzat Artik, Ufuk Tansel Sireli, Kivanc Yarangumeli, and Nevzat Konar, "The Presence of Some Mycotoxins in Corn Grown in Turkey," International Journal of Food Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 159-164, December 2017. doi: 10.18178/ijfe.3.2.159-164