197
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
X. Dai et al. (eds.), Fungi in Sustainable Food Production, Fungal Biology,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64406-2_12
Chapter 12
Fungal Mycotoxins
Neveen M. Abdelmotilib, Amira G. Darwish, Ahmed M. Abdel-Azeem,
and Donia H. Sheir
12.1 Introduction
Mycotoxins (from “myco” fungus and toxin) are nonvolatile, relatively lowmolecular- weight, fungal secondary metabolic products. Mycotoxins are a muchdiversified group of toxic compounds produced by five kinds of spore-forming
fungi, known to cause noxious effects to the health of humans and animals. Food
security is regularly risked by mycotoxins appearing in food (Ilesanmi and
Ilesanmi 2011).
The term mycotoxin was first used in the 1960s to describe the toxin associated
with contaminated peanuts in animal feed and the loss of turkeys in England (turkey
X disease). This mycotoxin was later identified as the Aspergillus flavus toxin aflatoxin B1. Bennett (1987) defined mycotoxins as “natural products produced by
fungi that evoke a toxic response when introduced in low concentrations to higher
vertebrates and other animals by a natural route.” Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites, defined by Bennett and Bentley (1989) as “metabolic intermediates or products, found as a differentiation product in restricted taxonomic groups, not essential
to growth and life of the producing organism, and biosynthesized from one or more
general metabolites by a wider variety of pathways than is available in general
N. M. Abdelmotilib · A. G. Darwish
Food Technology Department, Arid Lands Cultivation Research Institute, City of Scientific
Research and Technological Applications, Alexandria, Egypt
A. M. Abdel-Azeem (*)
Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, University of Suez Canal,
Ismailia 41522, Egypt
e-mail: ahmed_abdelazeem@science.suez.edu.eg
D. H. Sheir
Chemistry of Natural and Microbial Products Department, Pharmaceutical Industries
Division, National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
X. Dai et al. (eds.), Fungi in Sustainable Food Production, Fungal Biology,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64406-2_12
Chapter 12
Fungal Mycotoxins
Neveen M. Abdelmotilib, Amira G. Darwish, Ahmed M. Abdel-Azeem,
and Donia H. Sheir
12.1 Introduction
Mycotoxins (from “myco” fungus and toxin) are nonvolatile, relatively lowmolecular- weight, fungal secondary metabolic products. Mycotoxins are a muchdiversified group of toxic compounds produced by five kinds of spore-forming
fungi, known to cause noxious effects to the health of humans and animals. Food
security is regularly risked by mycotoxins appearing in food (Ilesanmi and
Ilesanmi 2011).
The term mycotoxin was first used in the 1960s to describe the toxin associated
with contaminated peanuts in animal feed and the loss of turkeys in England (turkey
X disease). This mycotoxin was later identified as the Aspergillus flavus toxin aflatoxin B1. Bennett (1987) defined mycotoxins as “natural products produced by
fungi that evoke a toxic response when introduced in low concentrations to higher
vertebrates and other animals by a natural route.” Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites, defined by Bennett and Bentley (1989) as “metabolic intermediates or products, found as a differentiation product in restricted taxonomic groups, not essential
to growth and life of the producing organism, and biosynthesized from one or more
general metabolites by a wider variety of pathways than is available in general
N. M. Abdelmotilib · A. G. Darwish
Food Technology Department, Arid Lands Cultivation Research Institute, City of Scientific
Research and Technological Applications, Alexandria, Egypt
A. M. Abdel-Azeem (*)
Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, University of Suez Canal,
Ismailia 41522, Egypt
e-mail: ahmed_abdelazeem@science.suez.edu.eg
D. H. Sheir
Chemistry of Natural and Microbial Products Department, Pharmaceutical Industries
Division, National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt