Kim Juil, An Tae Jin, Moon Yuseok
Laboratory of Mucosal Exposome and Biomodulation, Department of Integrative Biomedical Sciences and Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University, Yangsan, South Korea.
Department of Herbal Crop Research, National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science (NIHHS), Eumseong, South Korea.
Front Microbiol. 2022 Oct 21;13:952628. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.952628. eCollection 2022.
Improperly practiced postharvest procedures can pose mycotoxin-related risks during medicinal herb production. As a health food material with pharmacological activities, Angelicae Gigantis Radix (AGR) has been extensively used in oriental medicine or functional foods. Compared with the official protocol, conventional practices were investigated for provisional critical control points (CCPs) in terms of ochratoxin A (OTA) contamination. Conventional practices include field-drying, which was associated with increased fungal exposure. Compared with conventional methods, the washing process in the official protocol was not advantageous for reducing OTA contamination in final products. Instead, drying was examined to assess the fungal growth risk during AGR production. To reduce the energy cost, product overload and shortened drying time could lead to failure in controlling fungal overgrowth and subsequent OTA production. In particular, inner parts of the load contained a higher OTA content than outer parts close to the heat outlet of the dryer. Improper thermal drying of loads allowed the growth of ochratoxigenic species during AGR production. Collectively, non-field-drying and optimally loaded thermal drying are easy preventive actions in key CCPs that need to be well maintained to attenuate any further microbial risk. These assessments provide insights into good practice-based mycotoxin risk management in producing herbal medicinal crops and new cost-efficient appropriate interventions for small-scale farms.
收获后程序操作不当会在药草生产过程中带来与霉菌毒素相关的风险。作为一种具有药理活性的健康食品原料，当归（AGR）已广泛应用于传统医学或功能性食品中。与官方规程相比，针对赭曲霉毒素A（OTA）污染情况，对常规操作中的临时关键控制点（CCP）进行了调查。常规操作包括田间干燥，这与真菌暴露增加有关。与传统方法相比，官方规程中的清洗过程对减少最终产品中的OTA污染并无优势。相反，对干燥过程进行了研究，以评估AGR生产过程中的真菌生长风险。为降低能源成本，产品过载和缩短干燥时间可能导致无法控制真菌过度生长以及随后的OTA产生。特别是，物料内部的OTA含量高于靠近干燥机热出口的外部。物料的不当热干燥会使产赭曲霉毒素菌种在AGR生产过程中生长。总体而言，非田间干燥和优化装载的热干燥是关键CCP中的简单预防措施，需要妥善维护以降低任何进一步的微生物风险。这些评估为药草作物生产中基于良好操作规范的霉菌毒素风险管理提供了见解，并为小规模农场提供了新的具有成本效益的适当干预措施。
