Effect of humidity on aflatoxin contamination for selected African leafy vegetables.

In this study, the aflatoxin contamination level of selected freshly harvested and dried African leafy vegetables was investigated after inoculation with Aspergillus flavus spores and incubation at 32%, 74%, 84%, and 96% static relative humidity. The study question was whether Aspergillus sp. growth on selected vegetables: Corchorus olitorius, Crotalaria ochroleuca, Vigna unguiculata, Solanum villosum, and Amaranthus blitum can produce aflatoxins. The experiment was replicated thrice and a control sample was included for each replicate. An Agilent 1260 Infinity HPLC system was used for analysis and we quantified the following aflatoxins; B1, B2, G1, and G2 in the selected vegetables. Our results show that aflatoxin B1, G1, and G2 were all present, with the B1 being prevalent. The contamination level increased with relative humidity increase for both freshly harvested and dried vegetables. However, the dried vegetables had a lower contamination level in comparison with freshly harvested. The findings affirm the importance of post-harvest crop preservation to avoid mycotoxin contamination. The vegetables can suffer aflatoxin contamination when exposed to high moisture and ambient temperature and drying is a suitable method of vegetable preservation.

Drying of African leafy vegetables for their effective preservation: the difference in moisture sorption isotherms explained by their microstructure.

The problem of malnutrition and nutrition deficiency, as well as droughts that lead to reduction in food supply and starvation, is well documented for Sub-Saharan Africa. Reducing post-harvest losses of five species of African leafy vegetables (ALVs) by preservation through drying is studied herein. Energy efficient gentle drying conditions using superabsorbent polymers and a temperature of 40 °C were shown to preserve most leaf structures and vitamins. The microbial safe moisture content of the ALVs was found to be ≤14% dry basis. Dried Slender Leaf and Nightshade leaves could be rehydrated to the equilibrium moisture content of fresh leaves upon dry storage, while it was not possible for Jute Mallow, Cowpea and Amaranthus. This was attributed to different palisade parenchyma cell lengths. An increased amount of starch granules as observed in the microstructure of Cowpea and Nightshade leaves is suggested to explain their fibrous texture upon cooking. These results show that the ALVs can be effectively preserved using the same drying method and that this can be used to fight micro-nutrient deficiencies during droughts.