Hamid Moh. Al-Gabr,

Chengsong Ye, Yongli Zhang, Sardar Khan, Huirong Lin, Tianling Zheng,Journal

of Environmental Biology, 2013, 34:353-358

Mycotoxins are considered as the most

hazardous fungal metabolites for human, animals and planthealth. Recently, more

attention has been paid on the occurrence of this group of fungi in

differentwater sources throughout the globe. In this study,Aspergillus parasiticusATCC strain was

used asrepresentative strain producing

aflatoxins in drinking water. This study aimed to investigate theactivation of

fungi in drinking water and their ability to produce aflatoxins (B1, B2, G1,

and G2) inwater under different ratios of C:N using different concentrations of

total organic carbon (TOC) andtotal nitrogen (TN). Glucose and ammonium

sulphate were used for changing the levels of TOC andTN in the selected water

media. Similarly, the effects of different water pH levels from 4.5 to 8.2

onthe growth of this group of fungi and aflatoxins production were also

investigated. The resultsindicate that the growth of fungi was highest, at C:N

ratio of 1:1 as compared to other

selectedratios. Furthermore, the findings indicate that the pH levels 5.5­6.5

showed best growth of fungi ascompared to other pH levels. Aflatoxin

concentrations were measured in the water samples usingHPLC technique, but

selected fungi were not able to produce aflatoxins in water at

appliedconcentrations of TOC and TN mimicking the ratios and concentrations

present in the natural aquaticenvironment.

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