Cereal Chem 51:492 - 499.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
Aflatoxin Distribution in Contaminated Corn.

O. L. Shotwell, M. L. Goulden, and C. W. Hesseltine. Copyright 1974 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Individual kernels with the bright greenish-yellow fluorescence associated with the presence of aflatoxin and kernels without the fluorescence from contaminated white and yellow corn samples were assayed individually. Some kernels having a greenish-yellow fluorescence under the seed coat had to be split open before the typical fluorescence became visible. All fluorescing kernels contained aflatoxin; none of the nonfluorescing ones did. The following fractions from 10 lots of aflatoxin-contaminated corn were analyzed: a) fluorescing intact kernels and pieces; b) kernels with fluorescence visible under the seed coat; c) damaged, cracked, or discolored kernels, or in any combinations; and d) outwardly sound kernels. Aflatoxin was in all the listed fractions, but amounts and distribution of the toxin in each depended on the lot of corn. Aflatoxin was found in the outwardly sound kernel portion because some kernels with fluorescence under the seed coat do not have an abnormal appearance even under ultraviolet light (365 nm.). Fluorescing particles were observed in ground meals of outwardly sound kernels.