amount of aflatoxin that may be carried away in the oil by particulates
or emulsion. Such a product may preserve enough of the
market value of the rejected peanuts to prevent their sale for human
consumption, yet reduce the amount of aflatoxin streaming
into the human food chain. Edible oil is certainly a product
appropriate to existing value chains in Haiti and other lesserdeveloped
countries. Our study evaluated the carryover of aflatoxins
from contaminated kernels to crude oil to ethanol-treated
oil, and we chose to compare the extraction efficacy of an HPLCgrade
ethanol and a locally made spirit (CL) because the latter
would lower the cost and increase the feasibility of aflatoxin
extraction among Haitian peanut processors.
Aflatoxin concentration (mg/kg) in oil pressed from batches of
contaminated peanuts (n ¼ 5) was reduced to a mean of 5.0% of the
original concentration in the roasted kernels [maximum ¼ 12%,
minimum of original concentration ¼ 1%, standard error of the
mean (SEM) ¼ 2.2%]. The original sample that was least contaminated
with aflatoxin was a mix of peanut germ and skins removed
from kernels at a Haitian peanut processing facility. Total aflatoxins
in the germ-skin mix, press cake, and corresponding oil were 155,
99, and 19 mg/kg, respectively.
The results from the first extraction experiment are shown in
Table 3, and the findings of the second and third are in Table 4.
Taking together the results of all three, aflatoxin was reduced to a
mean of 10% (standard error of the mean ¼ 2.2%) of the original oil
using an oil: solvent ratio of 1:3 in triplicate. In the case of HA, total
aflatoxins were reduced from 18200 mg/kg whole peanuts to
185 mg/kg pressed oil to 11 mg/kg CL-treated oil. The comparison of
experiments 2 and 3 should be interpreted with caution, as the
initial aflatoxin concentration in the two treatment groups differed.
Notwithstanding, we observed a reduction in aflatoxin that followed
a comparable doseeresponse relationship using both CL and
50% HPLC ethanol, the former of which would be more economically
accessible to Haitian peanut processors. Our finding underscores
that future studies further examine the comparative
efficacy and socio-economic factors that would influence adoption
of locally procured spirits to extract aflatoxins in resource-limited
contexts similar to rural Haiti.