Study of mycotoxins from wheat grains from the Thakur Village Market, Kandivali, Mumbai, India

Mycotoxins are fungal metabolites, which are toxic for the human beings, when consumed. They are usually found in various types of food grains invaded by the fungal pathogens. Aflatoxin is the most common among them and prime mycotoxin produced by various species of Aspergillus as well as some other fungi, which can be detected for their presence and can be extracted and estimated by different methods. Thakur Village market is one of the most crowded areas at Kandivali. The shops of small, local vendors situated by the sides of gutters and drainage systems are in unhealthy condi-tions. They still use gunny bags for storage of grains. Presence of such an unhealthy environment with warm temperature and moisture are the ideal places for growth of fungal pathogens and production of mycotoxins. Wheat is the main food grain purchased from such kind of vendors by the local people. Hence, in the present studies, authors have tried to work on extraction, estimation, and detection of different types of mycotoxins from wheat grains from the Thakur Village Market, Kandivali. Five samples from the said market were selected for screening, where all of them were invaded by the fungal pathogens and showed presence of different types of mycotoxins. Aspergillus was the most common fungus while aflatoxin and ochratoxin were the common mycotoxins. These mycotoxins were detected and confirmed by using TLC technique.