Abstract
In order to dissolved the substances to be estimated by the chicken embryo test, various solvents have been used. This study was performed to ascertain whether these solvents affect on the toxic strength of the samples for the chicken embryos. In this experiment, aflatoxin B1 was used and water, DMSO, propylene glycol and olive oil were selected as its solvents.
Aflatoxin B1 dissolved in each solvent was inoculated into the air cells or yolk sacs of White Leghorn fertile eggs aged four to seven days. The toxicity was estimated by the mortality of the embryos three days after inoculation.
In the air cell inoculation, though all the solvents showed by themselves none of the toxic effect within their doses, the toxicity of aflatoxin B1 varied by the kind of the solvent. That is, the toxic strength came in the order of the sample dissolved in water, DMSO, propylene glycol and olive oil, corresponding with the amount of aflatoxin B1 incorporated into the egg through its membrane. Thus it was found that the changes in the toxicity were dependent on the membrane permeability of aflatoxin B1 affected by the solvents.
In the yolk sac inoculation, aflatoxin B1 dissolved in water and olive oil showed almost the same toxicity, but that dissolved in DMSO and propylene glycol did not prove any toxicity at all. It is assumed that those decrease of the toxicity in latter solvents were due to disturbed diffusion of the toxin from its injected site, since they were noticed to denature the yolk proteins.
