Objectives: Contamination of food and animal feed with aflatoxins produced by Aspergillus flavus, A. parasiticus and A. nomius is a worldwide problem. Aflatoxins have toxic, carcinogenic and mutagenic potential with adverse effect on human and animal health. This study investigated a novel and cost effective method for reducing aflatoxins content. 
Methodology and results: Five strains of Lactobacillus species (L. brevis, L. acidophilus, L. casei, L. delbruekii, L. plantarum) were isolated from fermented maize (Ogi) and characterized using sugar fermentation and other standard biochemical tests. Viable and heat-killed bacteria were incubated with maize grains artificially contaminated with A. flavus. Residual aflatoxins in the maize grains were quantified using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). All viable and heat-killed bacterial strains were able to bind aflatoxins in maize. The binding activities by viable test strains ranged from 32 to 75% and 32 to 95% for live and heat-killed strains, respectively. The ability of the viable and heat-killed strains to bind aflatoxins was most efficient after 72h. The most efficient organism was heat-killed  L. plantarum, which bound 76ng/g of aflatoxins (95%) out of the original 80ng/g leaving a residual of 4ng/g aflatoxins in the fermented maize.
Conclusion and application of findings: This study demonstrated that aflatoxin can be effectively removed using heat-killed Lactobacillus species. This process is also strain specific as L. plantarum bound more aflatoxins than other strains tested. The high detoxification rates by Lactobacillus plantarum indicate potential for application in food and feed processing industries.

Key words

Aflatoxins, binding activity, detoxification, Lactobacillus species, maize-fermentation

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