Association for Cereal Research e.V., Detmold, Germany.
Department of Safety and Quality of Cereals, Max Rubner-Institut, Federal Research Institute of Nutrition and Food, Detmold, Germany.
Mycotoxin Res. 2023 Aug;39(3):153-163. doi: 10.1007/s12550-023-00493-3. Epub 2023 Jun 15.
Zearalenone is a frequently occurring and well-known mycotoxin developed in cereals before and during the harvest period by Fusarium spp. mainly in maize and wheat. In addition to the main form, various modified forms (phase I and II metabolites) were detected, in some cases in high amounts. These modified forms can be harmful for human health due to their different toxicity, which can be much higher compared to the parent toxin. In addition, the parent toxin can be cleaved from the phase I and II metabolites during digestion. A risk of correlated and additive adverse effects of the metabolites of ZEN phase I and II in humans and animals is evident. ZEN is considered in many studies on its occurrence in grain-based foods and some studies are dedicated to the behavior of ZEN during food processing. This is not the case for the ZEN phase I and II metabolites, which are only included in a few occurrence reports. Their effects during food processing is also only sporadically addressed in studies to date. In addition to the massive lack of data on the occurrence and behavior of ZEN modified forms, there is also a lack of comprehensive clarification of the toxicity of the numerous different ZEN metabolites detected to date. Finally, studies on the fate during digestion of the relevant ZEN metabolites will be important in the future to further clarify their relevance in processed foods such as bakery products.
玉米赤霉烯酮是一种在农作物收获前和收获期间由镰刀菌属（主要是玉米赤霉和小麦赤霉）产生的常见且熟知的真菌毒素。除了主要形式外，还检测到了各种修饰形式（I 期和 II 期代谢物），在某些情况下含量很高。这些修饰形式可能对人类健康有害，因为它们的毒性不同，与母体毒素相比，毒性可能要高得多。此外，在消化过程中，母体毒素可以从 I 期和 II 期代谢物中裂解出来。因此，ZEN 的 I 期和 II 期代谢物在人类和动物中的相关性和附加不良影响的风险是明显的。在许多关于谷物食品中 ZEN 存在的研究中都考虑到了 ZEN，一些研究专门研究了 ZEN 在食品加工过程中的行为。而 ZEN 的 I 期和 II 期代谢物则并非如此，这些代谢物仅在少数出现报告中提到。迄今为止的研究中，仅偶尔涉及它们在食品加工过程中的作用。除了大量缺乏关于 ZEN 修饰形式的发生和行为的数据外，目前还缺乏对迄今为止检测到的众多不同 ZEN 代谢物的毒性的全面澄清。最后，在未来的研究中，关于相关 ZEN 代谢物在消化过程中的命运的研究将非常重要，以便进一步澄清它们在烘焙食品等加工食品中的相关性。
