2018 Volume 22 Issue 2 Pages 53-59
Aflatoxin B1 (AfB1) is one of the main contaminant of grains such as corn and wheat, causing damage to livestock through ingestion of contaminated feed. Recently, various clays have been added to the feed to adsorb mycotoxins and to prevent mycotoxicosis of animals. However, the effect of kind of clays is still unclear. In this study, several kinds of natural clays such as bentonite and sepiolite, as well as the synthetic two-dimensional talc as a reference, were tested as an adsorbent for AfB1 in aqueous solutions. All of the clays used here was found to have high adsorption performance for AfB1. Especially, five kinds of the bentonite samples indicated the larger adsorption capacity and the faster adsorption rate of AfB1 in spite of their relatively lower specific surface area. The adsorption capacity of the sepiolite sample was almost similar to the bentonite samples, but the adsorption rate was somewhat smaller because of its intrinsic smaller pore structure. Moreover, the adsorption capacity of these clay for AfB1 was hardly influenced by the solution pH of 3–9 and temperature of 25–40°C, and the desorption of AfB1 from these clay samples in water was almost negligible. In these cases, AfB1 molecules are thought to be captured by the chelating of two carbonyl groups with metal cation at the destruction face of the clay basal layer. In conclusion, these natural and acid-treated clays can be used as the practical adsorbent to prevent mycotoxicosis of animals.