Abstract
Mycotoxin production inhibitors are useful as lead compounds in the development of effective drugs for preventing mycotoxin contamination in food and feed. These inhibitors also serve as valuable probes for investigating the regulatory mechanisms that control mycotoxin production in fungi. We screened microbial metabolites and essential oils to find inhibitors that specifically targeted aflatoxin production in Aspergillus parasiticus and trichothecene production in Fusarium graminearum. This led to findings of aflatoxin production inhibitory activity of aflastatins, blasticidins A and S, dioctatin A, dillapiol, apiol and spiroethers. We also found trichothecene production inhibitory activity of spiroethers, precocenes and piperitone. Our work on these compounds is reviewed.
