Abstract
Aflatoxins in contaminated corn do not degrade in corn fermentation solution (CFS) during biofuel production; rather, they are enriched in the co-product, dried distillers grain. Aflatoxin B1 (AfB1) is the most toxic form of all aflatoxins. Removing AfB1 from CFS is desirable to minimize its toxicity to animals. Smectites can adsorb AfB1 from aqueous solutions and, therefore, inactivate the toxin, but proteins in CFS inhibit the adsorption of AfB1 by smectites. The current study aimed to minimize the interference by CFS in adsorption of AfB1 on smectite by modifying a calcium-smectite (Ca-3MS) with a small nutritive organic compound, e.g. carnitine, choline, arginine, histidine, or tryptophan. The organo-smectites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and adsorption of AfB1 in CFS by these composites was examined. Various degrees of intercalation of the organic nutrients into the smectites were observed with XRD and FTIR. After immersing the smectite and organo-smectites in the CFS, the d001 values of Ca-3MS expanded to ~1.82 nm due to protein interaction, but the organo-smectites were confined to ~1.39 nm, which indicated that the protein had limited access to the organo-smectite interlayers. The IR bands at ~1652, 1544, 1538, and 1454 cm–1 from the organo-smectites revealed, however, that complete protein inhibition was not achieved. The organo-smectites were capable of adsorbing AfB1 in simple aqueous solution with maximal adsorption capacity up to 0.55 mol kg–1. Significantly greater (p ≤ 0.05) AfB1 adsorption was achieved by choline- and carnitine-modified smectites compared with the original Ca-3MS in the presence of competing protein (pepsin) in simple aqueous solution. In real CFS, both AfB1 adsorption capacities (Qmax) and affinities (K) by all organo-smectites were greater (Qmax = up to 0.45 mol kg–1 and K = up to 0.165 μM–1) than those by Ca-3MS (Qmax = 0.22 mol kg–1 and K = 0.031 μM–1). The study suggested that using smectites modified with an organic nutritive compound could be an effective, economical, and safe strategy for removing mycotoxins, including aflatoxins, during biofuel production.
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Data Availability
All data were generated after research work done in Dr. Deng’s Clay Mineralogy Lab at TAMU. Information in Table 1 was taken from the literature.
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Acknowledgments
Finance for this research was mainly covered by Aflatoxin Mitigation Center of Excellence (AMCOE) (Grant 406893). Student research grants from The Clay Minerals Society (CMS) partially supported the researchers who carried out the project.
Funding
Finance for this research was mainly covered by the Aflatoxin Mitigation Center of Excellence (AMCOE) (Grant 406893). Student research grants from The Clay Minerals Society (CMS) helped the researchers to carry out the project.
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Dr. Sabrina Sharmeen Alam, the first author of this manuscript, carried out this research in the department of Soil and Crop Sciences of the Texas A&M University, College Station, USA as a significant part of her Ph.D dissertation. In addition, she made a significant contribution to the data analysis and writing of the present manuscript. Dr. Y. Deng was Dr. Alam's adviser and he made a significant contribution to the production of the manuscript in terms of conceptualizing, editing, and advising.
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Alam, S.S., Deng, Y. Modifying a Smectite using Organic Nutrients to Enhance its Efficacy at Removing Aflatoxin B1 from Corn Fermentation Solution. Clays Clay Miner. 70, 196–208 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42860-022-00179-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42860-022-00179-4