Internship Report and Monography entitled “State of the art of multi-mycotoxins determination methods in groundnuts (peanuts)”

Abstract

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites originated from several species of fungi that have proven to demonstrate high toxicity. In addition, potential contamination sources can promote increased human exposure to adverse effects of these toxins. For this reason, it was necessary to develop several analytical methods that allow detection with the highest possible sensitivity for these toxic metabolites. Furthermore, since these methods involve particular costs, time and sensitivities, the development of multi-analyte detection methods is indispensable. The increasing consumption of groundnuts (legumes) as well as nuts (such as almonds, walnuts, pistachios) and dried fruit (dried figs and dried figs) has increased the risk of poisoning and the harmful effects of mycotoxins, which has encouraged studies for the creation of these methods. This work compiles some of the methods applied to analyse and quantify mycotoxins in groundnuts (peanuts) in junction with decontamination techniques. Methodologies presented in this review are predominantly based in nuts and dried fruits analytical technologies, however every methodology can be compared and used in groundnuts analysis. It was also relevant to elevate the importance of the development of multi-analyte methods in order to identify multiple mycotoxins using a single method, saving time, money and resources.Legume is any plant that has seeds in long pods, such has peas, beans and peanuts1. Nuts are considered fruits whose walls become hard when mature. On the other hand, dried fruits result from a drying process of the fruit that is originally rich in water content becoming a product rich in fibre, fat and/or sugars, such as dried figs, and raisins2. Nuts and dried fruits, such as walnuts and brazil nuts, are those that naturally have a low water content in their composition.

As micotoxinas são metabolitos secundários de várias espécies de fungos e produzidos em condições específicas. A maioria deles provou ter uma elevada toxicidade. Além disso, diferentes fontes de contaminação podem promover uma maior exposição humana a estas toxinas, que afetam negativamente a saúde. O consumo crescente de amendoins (leguminosas) bem como de frutos secos (como amêndoas, nozes, pistácios) e frutos secos (figos secos e uva passa) aumentou o risco de envenenamento e os efeitos nocivos das micotoxinas, o que encorajou estudos para o desenvolvimento e validação destes métodos. Por esta razão, foram desenvolvidos métodos analíticos com o objetivo de detetar e quantificar estes metabolitos tóxicos com especificidade, baixos limites de deteção, boa precisão e exatidão. Este trabalho identifica as micotoxinas mais comuns nos amendoins, frutos secos e frutas de casca rija e compila métodos de multi-micotoxinas aplicados à determinação destes contaminantes nos amendoins. Além disso, aborda também técnicas capazes de descontaminar amendoins, frutos secos e frutos secados. As metodologias analíticas apresentadas nesta revisão são predominantemente aplicadas aos amendoins, embora em alguns casos sejam comparadas com as aplicadas aos frutos secos. Nos últimos anos existe uma tendência na utilização de métodos que permitem a determinação simultânea de diferentes micotoxinas, tais como a cromatografia líquida acoplada a espectrometria de massa sequencial (tandem). Estes métodos são os chamados métodos de multi-micotoxinas e permitem poupar tempo, custos e recursos.