Abstract
Certain Egyptian polished rice examined on several toxic substances was found to be naturally contaminated with aflatoxins (AF). This rice was sent to Japan by a Japanese resident in Cairo, who suspected the rice bought there was a cause of his illness. The rice was mingled with pale yellow grain, and apparently not suitable to eat according to the inspection guideline for agricultural products in Japan. As residual pesticides, phenitrothion and BHC were found from the rice, although their concentrations were lower than their standard requirements. We determined aflatoxins, deoxy-nivalenol and nivalenol on the rice and found AF B1 (8 ppb), AF B2 (2 ppb), which were confirmed by GC/MS. Twelve strains of A. flavus were isolated from the rice, and 1 strain produced AF B1 and B2 at the concentrations of 43 ppm and 3 ppm respectively.
