2002 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 123-128
Oil palm is an important plant for edible oil production. Prior to harvesting the palm fruit bunches from which the oil is extracted, the fronds beneath the palm fruit are removed. Research has shown that the waste palm fronds can be used as cattle feed. However, mycotoxin contamination of these fronds, especially aflatoxin contamination, is of concern. Therefore, we developed an analytical method for determining aflatoxins in dried oil palm fronds (OPF) and compound feed containing OPF. Aflatoxins were extracted with 80 % acetonitrile and passed through a multi-functional column (MycoSep #228) as a clean-up step prior to analyses. Aflatoxins were analyzed by both TLC and HPLC. The recovery of aflatoxins from samples spiked at 5 to 20 μg/kg (aflatoxin B1, B2, G1 and G2 individually) was about 75 % and RSDs were less than 10 %. The detection limit of aflatoxin B1 in OPF by TLC was 5 μg/kg. No aflatoxins were detected among ten of the OPF samples analyzed, however, aflatoxins were produced and detected in samples that were inoculated with potent aflatoxin producing strains.