title: Aflatoxins contamination in Pakistani brown rice: a comparison of TLC, HPLC, LC-MS/MS and ELISA techniques.
abstract: Advancement in the field of analytical food-chemistry has explored various experimental techniques for aflatoxins (AFs) quantification. The present study was aimed to compare four different techniques; thin-layer chromatography (TLC), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the analysis of aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁), B₂ (AFB₂), G₁ (AFG₁) and G₂ (AFG₂) in brown rice (n = 120) being collected from Karachi, Pakistan. All the four assays provide precised, accurate and comparable results. However, some differences were observed. For instance, TLC, HPLC and LC-MS/MS methodologies offered the advantage of the quantification of individual toxins in contrast to ELISA technique. The contamination ranges of AFB₁/AFB₂ as determined by TLC, HPLC and LC-MS/MS were 1.18-9.97/0.59-1.52, 0.16-10.54/0.26-1.35 and 0.11-10.88/0.38-1.48 µg/kg, respectively. However, AFG₁ and AFG₂ were not detected in any tested samples. Furthermore, owing to low-detection limit and sensitivity, HPLC and LC-MS/MS methodologies have identified greater number of contaminated samples in comparison to TLC and ELISA techniques. The overall average results of total AFs as provided by HPLC (3.79 µg/kg) and LC-MS/MS (3.89 µg/kg) were found higher in comparison to TLC (3.68 µg/kg) and ELISA (3.70 µg/kg). On the basis of achieved results, it was concluded that TLC, HPLC, LC-MS/MS and ELISA techniques are valuable tool for the quantification of AFs in cereals and grains. Furthermore, HPLC and LC-MS/MS techniques offer an added advantage for the detection of AFs in diminutive levels.
authors: Food and Feed Safety Laboratory, Food and Marine Resources Research Centre , Karachi, Sindh , Pakistan.
authors: Javed
authors: J
authors: Iqbal
authors: Muhammad Asif
authors: MA
authors: Asghar
authors: Aftab
authors: A
authors: Ahmed
authors: Mobeen Ahmed
authors: MA
authors: Khan
authors: Khalid
authors: K
authors: Jamil
mesh_terms: D000348:Aflatoxins / Q000032:analysis*; D002138:Calibration; D002274:Carcinogens, Environmental / Q000032:analysis*; D005506:Food Contamination; D005511:Food Handling; D005513:Food Inspection / Q000379:methods*; D057230:Limit of Detection; D012275:Oryza / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000191:economics; D010154:Pakistan; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012639:Seeds / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D000348:Aflatoxins; D002274:Carcinogens, Environmental
keywords: Aflatoxins; cereals; comparison; enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; grains; high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC); liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry; thin-layer chromatography