Aflatoxin Immunoaffinity Column

Pregnancy is not a disease condition; it is a physiological process. However, the risks prevail until this process ends. While many pregnancies and births culminate without any problems, a considerable number of them end up with undesirable pregnancy outcomes such as intrauterine growth retardation, preterm labor, and low birth weight infants. Although the causes of these negative pregnancy outcomes are not fully understood, they occur in a multifactorial ways. One of the important issues here is the foods consumed by women with pregnancy. Pregnant women should avoid consuming fast food products, alcohol, or tobacco, which are already known to be harmful to human health, as well as harmful natural products containing mycotoxins. Mycotoxins are natural toxins with a wide range of chemical structures. While people can get these toxins directly from agricultural products, they can also be exposed indirectly through products of animals fed with contaminated feed. Mycotoxins have negative impacts on human health with their carcinogenic, teratogenic, and mutagenic effects. There are some evidences that mycotoxins can lead to negative pregnancy outcomes. These possible negative effects have been determined to be lower birth weight, neonatal jaundice, fetal loss, fetal defects, preterm birth, maternal anemia, and preeclampsia. However, more evidence is needed on this topic. This review aims to investigate the adverse effects of mycotoxins during pregnancy.

This study reports the fabrication of orange peels (OP) extract (water:ethanol:acetonitrile) modified organic-inorganic hybrid bentonite (OP-bentonite). The synthesized composite was employed for the adsorptive removal of carcinogenic mycotoxins (aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), fumonisin B1(FB1) and ochratoxin (OTA)). The product was texturally characterized by BET, FTIR, XRD, TGA, SEM, EDX and XPS techniques while quantification of toxins was performed using HPLC/LC-MS. The effect of reaction temperature, pH, adsorbent dosage, coexisting mycotoxins and gastro-intestinal fluids on the adsorption performance of OP-bentonite was systematically investigated. Isothermal data (pH 2.5 and 7.0) for toxins adsorption agreed well with the Langmuir isotherm model revealing maximum adsorption capacity (q(max)) (mg/g) of 166 and 121 for AFB1, 3.87 and 1.78 for FB1 and 1.97 and 3.19 for OTA respectively. The adsorption kinetics followed pseudo-second-order kinetic model while its adsorption capacity surpassed many adsorbents reported for AFB1, FB1 and OTA with orders of magnitude. Therefore, attributed to the advantages of being efficient, green and simplified synthesis, OP-bentonite could be envisaged as a promising adsorbent for the enhanced sequestration of mycotoxins.