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Seed is the basic unit of crop production and has greater contribution to environmental and cultural factors and is widely distributed in national and international trade. The seeds are found to be responsible for disease transmission because they carry a number of pathogens. The toxigenic fungal flora, existing in conjunction with food, largely includes genera Aspergillus, Fusarium, and Penicillium and, to a lesser extent, the genera Alternaria, Claviceps, and Stachybotrys. These economically important species of fungi produce significant mycotoxins. More than 400 mycotoxins are known to exist in nature. Contamination of foods and feeds with mycotoxins is a worldwide serious problem. The most important mycotoxins in terms of toxic effect on both humans and animals are aflatoxins (AFs), citrinin (CIT), cyclopiazonic acid (CPA), fumonisins (FBs), moniliformin (MON), ochratoxin A (OTA), deoxynivalenol (DON), nivalenol (NIV), T-2 toxin (T-2), patulin (PAT), zearalenone (ZEA), and ustiloxins. These mycotoxins have several adverse impacts on consumers, such as loss of human and animal lives, health-care and veterinary care costs, contaminated food and feed disposal costs, and huge investment in research and management of the mycotoxin problem. The mycotoxins induce diverse biological effects, which have been characterized on animals and humans. These toxic effects of mycotoxins include cytotoxic, carcinogenic, immune suppressive, nephrotoxic neurotoxic, mutagenic and estrogenic effects, etc. |
