Cereal Chem 50:404 - 413.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
Bright Greenish-Yellow Fluorescence and Associated Fungi in White Corn Naturally Contaminated with Aflatoxin.

D. I. Fennell, R. J. Bothast, E. B. Lillehoj, and R. E. Peterson. Copyright 1973 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Good correlation was observed between the presence of Aspergillus flavus Link ex Fr., a bright greenish- yellow (BGY) fluorescence, and aflatoxin in a naturally contaminated white corn. However, A. flavus was observed on nonfluorescent whole undamaged kernels that assayed at less than 20 p.p.b. and on nonfluorescent whole damaged kernels and fragments that assayed at 3,000 p.p.b. Whole damaged kernels that failed to fluoresce externally yielded some fluorescing fragments when coarse ground. Routinely, BGY fluorescence in whole corn was observed on the face of the kernels immediately above the germ, and in sectioned kernels the emission was generally restricted to a narrow region outlining the germ. Usually, initial development of A. flavus was confined to the germ region. Isolates of A. flavus from aflatoxin- contaminated corn could be separated into four groups on gross cultural characteristics. Two of four isolates selected as representative of these groups exhibited aflatoxin-production capability, whereas all four synthesized kojic acid, the presumed precursor of the BGY fluorescence.