Detection of zearalenone, zearalenol and deoxynivalenol from medicinally important dried rhizomes and root tubers

Abstract

An investigation was carried to determine the natural contamination of three important fusarial mycotoxins; zearalenone (ZEN), zearalenol (ZOL) and deoxynivalenol (DON) in medicinally important dried rhizomes of Acorus calamus, Bergenia ciliata, Curcuma longa, Zingiber officinale and root tubers of Pueraria tuberosa. A total of 130 market samples were investigated for these mycotoxins. Contamination of ZEN was detected in 13.07 percent samples and that of DON was detected in 6.92
percent samples. However, only one sample of P. tuberosa was found to be contaminated with ZOL. Qualitative analysis with HPLC revealed very high concentrations of the detected fusarial toxins in the positive samples.