Studies On Fungal Species And Related Mycotoxin Contamination In9Chinese Medicinal Herbs

Practices used in harvesting, handling, storage, production and distribution make medicinal plants subject to contamination by various fungi, which may be responsible for spoilage and production of mycotoxins. The increasing popularity of natural drugs made their use a public health problem,these years people are concerning more about the congtamination by fungi and mycotoxin.48samples of medicinal herbals of9species which grouped in end product, raw material and at harvest, and7finished herbal drugs were evaluated for the fungal and mycotoxin contamination.the botanical name and parts used of these medicinal plants are:Paeonia lactiflora Pall root, Isatis indigotica Fort root, Mentha haplocalyx Briq leaf, Plantago asiatica L.leaf, Taraxacum mongolicum Hand.leaf, Isatis indigotica Fort.leaf, Dendrobium nobile Linkl.bark, Dendrobium candidum Wall. ex Lindl.bark, Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat flower.1、27samples of9medicinal herbals at harvest were evaluated for the fungal and mycotoxin contamination. Results indicated that predominant mycoflora was distributed in4genera., including Alternaria spp, Fusarium spp, Cladosporium spp, Neonectria spp, which corresponded for18.1%、14.1%、9.0%、8.2%of the isolates respectively. For those medicinal herbals which use either their leaf,bark or flower part, predominant contaminated mycoflora were Alternaria spp、Fusarium spp、Cladosporium spp.4species of medicial herbals(including Paeonia lactiflora Pall, Isatis indigotica Fort root, Isatis indigotica Fort leaf, Dendrobium nobile Linkl bark) were invesgated for the their fungal contamination at different stage of growth. Results indicate that the predominant contaminated mycoflora were same for one kind of medical plants at different stage of growth. 27samples were analysed for estimation of ZEA, DON, NIV, T-2, only one sample resulted ZEA positive.2、21samples of end products and raw materials of9medicinal herbals were evaluate for the fungal and mycotoxin contamination. Results indicate that the predominant contaminated mycoflora were Cladosporium spp、Penicillium spp、Aspergillus spp、 Alternaria spp, which corresponded for27.8%,26.0%,24.1%,20.4%of the isolates respectively. For the end products, predominant contaminated mycoflora were Aspergillus spp、Penicillium spp; for the raw materials, predominant contaminated mycoflora were Cladosporium spp、Alternaria spp. For the Paeonia lactiflora Pall root, there are no distinct difference of contaminated fungal speices between samples of different storage time.6out of21samples were positive for ZEA, including5samples of Paeonia lactiflora Pall root and one sample of Isatis indigotica Fort.leaf, no samples were positive for DON, NIV、T-2.3,7finished drugs were evaluated for the fungal and mycotoxin contamination. Results indicate that42.9%samples of finished drugs were contaminated by Fusarium spp,28.6%by Cladosporium spp, and Fusarium spp, Cladosporium spp corresponded for75%,25%of the isolates respectively. No samples were contaminated with either ZEA、 DON、NIV、T-2.