Journal of Drug Metabolism & Toxicology
Open Access
ISSN: 2157-7609
+44-20-4587-4809
ISSN: 2157-7609
+44-20-4587-4809
Conrado Rosas-Contreras, Magda Carvajal-Moreno, Francisco Rojo-Callejas and Silvia Ruiz-Velasco
In this study, we aimed to identify and quantify aflatoxins (AFs) (AFB1, AFB2, AFG1, and AFG2) by liquid chromatography and to validate the methodology in 3 types of chili peppers, “Ancho”, “Guajillo” and “Piquín” which are the most frequently consumed chili peppers in the 16 boroughs of Mexico City. As a separate aim, we analyzed the AFs in some chili pepper samples from India, Turkey and South Africa to determine whether the amount of AF contamination in chili peppers represents a health risk. Sixty-four compound samples of the three types of chili peppers in 48 markets of Mexico City and nine foreign samples from India, Turkey and South Africa were analyzed. The validation of the method for analyzing AFs included selectivity, lineality, recovery percentage and limits of detection and quantification. The average AF concentrations (μg kg-1) for “Ancho” chili pepper were AFB1 (1.46), AFB2 (0.15), AFG1 (1.28), AFG2 (2.08) and total aflatoxins (AFt) (3.49), which exhibited the highest contamination. The average AF concentrations (μg kg-1) for “Guajillo” hot pepper were AFB1 (0.53), AFB2 (0.08), AFG1 (0.40), AFG2 (0.85), and AFt (0.92). The average AF concentrations (μg kg-1) for “Piquín” chili pepper were AFB1 (1.44), AFB2 (0.10) AFG1 (1.57), AFG2 (1.09) and AFt (3.14). The 8 samples from foreign countries had average AF concentrations (μg kg-1) of AFB1 (0.7), AFB2 (0.2), AFG1 (0.7), AFG2 (1.1), and AFt (1.8 μg kg-1). Most of the chili peppers exhibited a significant difference in relation to their origin in Mexico City, with the exception of AFG2 in “Guajillo” chili pepper. The Mexican chili peppers had more complete sampling for the AFs than the few samples analyzed from Turkey, India and South Africa, which did not represent the whole country.