Aerobic and anaerobic in vitro testing of feed additives claiming to detoxify deoxynivalenol and zearalenone.

Deoxynivalenol (DON) and zearalenone (ZEN) are mycotoxins produced by fungi of the genus Fusarium which frequently contaminate maize and grain cereals. Mycotoxin-contaminated feed endangers animal health and leads to economic losses in animal production. Several mycotoxin elimination strategies, including the use of commercially available DON and ZEN detoxifying agents, have been developed. However, frequently there is no scientific proof of the efficacy of such adsorbents and degrading products. We therefore tested 20 commercially available products claiming to detoxify DON and/or ZEN either by biodegradation (4 products) or a combination of degradation and adsorption (16 products) under aerobic and anaerobic conditions at approx. pH 7. Under the applied conditions, a complete reduction of DON and consequent formation of the known non-toxic metabolite DOM-1 was exclusively observed in samples taken from the anaerobic degradation experiment of one product. For all other products, incubated under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, a maximum DON reduction of 17% after 72 h of incubation was detected. Aerobic and anaerobic incubation of only one tested product resulted in complete ZEN reduction as well as in the formation of the less-toxic metabolites DHZEN and HZEN. With this product, 68-97% of the toxin was metabolised within 3 h. After 24 h, a ZEN reduction ≥ 60% was obtained with four additional products during aerobic incubation only. Six of the 20 investigated products produced α- and/or ß-ZEL, which are metabolites showing similar oestrogenic activity compared to ZEN. Aerobic and anaerobic degradation to unknown metabolites with unidentified toxicity was obtained with 10 and 3 products, respectively. The results of our study demonstrate the importance of in vitro experiments to critically screen agents claiming mycotoxin detoxification.

Hydrolysed fumonisin B1 and N-(deoxy-D-fructos-1-yl)-fumonisin B1: stability and catabolic fate under simulated human gastrointestinal conditions.

Food processing may induce thermal degradation of fumonisins in corn via Maillard-type reactions, or alkaline hydrolysis via loss of the two tricarballylic acid moieties. In the former case, N-(1-deoxy-D-fructos-1-yl)-fumonisin B(1) (NDF) can be formed, while the latter derivative is called hydrolysed fumonisin B(1) (HFB(1)). The aim of this study was to deepen the knowledge about the gastrointestinal stability of HFB(1) and NDF in humans. Due to the lack of standard, NDF was chemically synthesised and cleaned up in high purity to be used for further experiments. While NDF is already partially cleaved (about 41%) during simulated digestion, it remained rather stable towards human colon microflora. In contrast to this, HFB(1) is partially metabolised by the colon microflora to unknown compounds after 24 h of fermentation, as seen by a loss of about 22%. Concluding, the cleavage of NDF during digestion as well as the likely metabolisation of HFB(1) emphasise the need for animal trials to ascertain their toxicity in vivo.

Effects of orally administered fumonisin B1 (FB1), partially hydrolysed FB1, hydrolysed FB1 and N-(1-deoxy-D-fructos-1-yl) FB1 on the sphingolipid metabolism in rats.

Fumonisin B1 (FB1) is a Fusarium mycotoxin frequently occurring in maize-based food and feed. Alkaline processing like nixtamalisation of maize generates partially and fully hydrolysed FB1 (pHFB1 and HFB1) and thermal treatment in the presence of reducing sugars leads to formation of N-(1-deoxy-D-fructos-1-yl) fumonisin B1 (NDF). The toxicity of these metabolites, in particular their effect on the sphingolipid metabolism, is either unknown or discussed controversially. We produced high purity FB1, pHFB1a+b, HFB1 and NDF and fed them to male Sprague Dawley rats for three weeks. Once a week, urine and faeces samples were collected over 24 h and analysed for fumonisin metabolites as well as for the sphinganine (Sa) to sphingosine (So) ratio by validated LC-MS/MS based methods. While the latter was significantly increased in the FB1 positive control group, the Sa/So ratios of the partially and fully hydrolysed fumonisins were indifferent from the negative control group. Although NDF was partly cleaved during digestion, the liberated amounts of FB1 did not raise the Sa/So ratio. These results show that the investigated alkaline and thermal processing products of FB1 were, at the tested concentrations, non-toxic for rats, and suggest that according food processing can reduce fumonisin toxicity for humans.