STUDY OF AFLATOXINS IN CASHEW NUTS PRODUCED IN COTE DIVOIRE BY HIGH PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY (LCHP)

The objective of this study is to isolate, identify and quantify four types of aflatoxins noted AFB1, AFB2, AFG1, and AFG2 that can be found in cashews grown in Cote dIvoire. These carcinogenic mycotoxins (AF) are secondary metabolite toxins produced by Aspergillus molds in plant foods.This work involved eleven (11) samples of 500 g of cashew nuts from eleven (11) cities of Cote dIvoire for the 2018-2019 campaign. These cities are: Beoumi, Bondoukou, Dabakala, Daloa, Douekoue, Ferkessedougou, Korhogo, Mignignan, Odienne, Sinematiali, and Touba. The test were carried out by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) after extraction of the four (4) mycotoxins on an immunoaffinity column at a flow rate of 3 mL / minute. These aflatoxins were identified and quantified from the following pairs of Retention time (Rt) in minutes and Limit of Detection (LD) in µg / kg: (13.777 0.00143), (10.583 0.00136), (9.901 0.00151), and (8.184 0.00564) respectively for AFB1, AFB2, AFG1, and AFG2. Our results show that all eleven (11) samples from these eleven (11) different cities contain aflatoxin (AFB1, AFB2, AFG2 and AFG1) contents below the national standard (2 µg / kg), that of the CODEX Alimentarius (1.4 µg / kg) and that of the European Union (2 µg / kg) indicating that cashews produced in Cote dIvoire comply with international standards and their consumption does not pose any risk to human health caused by the studied aflatoxins.