The effect of UV-C on growth of Aspergillus flavus isolated from the Red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum and the production of Aflatoxins

Abstract

The present study was carried out in order to evaluate the efficiency of UV-C onthe growth of the fungi Aspergillus flavus which was isolated from differentinstars of Tribolium castaneum in addition to its effect on the production ofaflatoxin by the fungi the results showed the followingWhen A.flavus exposed to different periods (2, 4, 8, 16, 24 and 32 min) of times toUV-C 254 nanometer wave length the radial growth of the fungi was reducedsignificantly as time of exposure was increased from 2 to 32 min being the lowestradial growth of the fungi was 1.12 cm after six day from time of exposure to UVCfor 32 min as compared with 8.42 cm in the control one (p>0.05).When HPLC technique used to detect the presence of aflatoxine produced by thefungi it was found that the rate of producing this kind of toxin was reducedsignificantly when A.flavus exposed to different periods of UV-C the lowest ratewas zero (under detection limit) when A.flavus exposed to UV-C for 32 min incomparison to 2.6 ppm in the control one.