摘要：Contamination by molds is a severe problem in fields as well as storage conditions causing significant loss in yield and quality of several commodities. Many of these molds produce mycotoxins, which are toxic to animals and are responsible for many acute and chronic human diseases. Rice, an important food commodity is susceptible to fungal infection in field as well as storage, hence, rice samples grown under different agro-climatic conditions were screened for molds and toxins produced by Fusarium sp., an important toxigenic storage fungi. High incidence of storage molds in all the samples was observed. Twenty two different species belonging to 16 genera were recorded. Aspergillus flavus , Fusarium moniliforme and Penicillium sp . were the predominant ones. Among the 64 Fusarium isolates, 17 were found to be toxigenic. High performance thin layer chromatography and HPLC analyses of commodities revealed the presence of Fusarium toxins deoxynivalenol, nivalenol, diacetoxyscirpenol, T-2, HT-2 and zearalenone. Among these toxins, deoxynivalenol and zearalenone were found in high levels ranging from 20 to 500 ÃZ¼g kg-1, with samples from Western Ghats showing the maximum level of 500 ÃZ¼g kg-1.
