Degradation of the mycotoxin patulin (PAT) and the generation of (less toxic) breakdown products, such as (E/Z)-ascladiol (ASC-E/Z) and desoxypatulinic acid (D-PAT), can occur due to chemical, physical and biological treatments. Our study focused on the chemical degradation of PAT in the presence of ascorbic acid (AA) both for pure PAT standard in acidified aqueous solution and for PAT-contaminated cloudy apple juice (CAJ) (obtained via addition of apple mash produced from apples inoculated with Penicillium expansum). Within this framework, different concentrations of AA were evaluated, as well as the presence/absence of oxygen and different storage temperatures. In order to do so, an in-house methodology allowing a good separation of PAT from its reaction and breakdown products was optimized first. The highest PAT reduction (60%) in CAJ with an initial PAT concentration of 100 μg/kg and 0.25% (w/v) AA was achieved after 6 days of incubation at 22 °C in the presence of oxygen. It was also found that the treatment by AA resulted in the generation of degradation products less toxic than PAT (such as (E/Z)-ASC). In conclusion, AA used to improve numerous product quality aspects (e.g. colour (less browning), nutritional value, etc.) and considered as a safe food additive (Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (1999)) has an effect on PAT degradation. It was shown that such degradation generated less toxic compounds in the presence of oxygen. In view of consumers’ safety, fortification of apple juice (and possibly apple-based products) with AA could be helpful within an integrated system to ensure products with low levels of patulin. The optimum conditions for such an approach within a legal and practical point of view need to be further explored.

中文翻译：

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抗坏血酸对水溶液和浑浊苹果汁中棒曲霉素的影响。

霉菌毒素棒蛋白（PAT）的降解和（低毒性）分解产物的产生，例如（E / Z）-天冬酰胺（ASC-E / Z）和脱氧patulinic acid（D-PAT）可能会发生，物理和生物治疗。我们的研究集中于在抗坏血酸（AA）存在下PAT的化学降解，包括纯PAT标准品在酸化水溶液中和受PAT污染的混浊苹果汁（CAJ）的添加（通过添加从接种了苹果的苹果泥中获得的苹果泥获得）扩展青霉）。在此框架内，评估了不同浓度的AA，以及是否存在氧气和不同的储存温度。为此，首先优化了一种内部方法，该方法可将PAT与反应和分解产物很好地分离。CAJ中最高的PAT减少量（60％），初始PAT浓度为100μg/ kg和0.25％（w / v）在氧气存在下于22°C孵育6天后获得AA。还发现通过AA处理导致产生的降解产物的毒性低于PAT（例如（E / Z）-ASC）。总之，用于改善许多产品质量方面（例如颜色（减少褐变），营养价值等）并被认为是安全的食品添加剂的AA（食品和药物管理局（FDA）（1999））对PAT的降解有影响。 。结果表明，这种降解在氧气存在下产生的毒性较小。考虑到消费者的安全性，在集成系统中使用AA强化苹果汁（可能还包括基于苹果的产品）可能有助于确保产品中的patulin含量较低。在法律和实践角度上，需要进一步探索这种方法的最佳条件。