The A. flavus AFCHG2 inoculum was produced by solid-state fer-
mentation on autoclaved long grain rice. The substrate (500 g) was
conditioned in plastic bags; distilled water was added to attain 35–
40% moisture content in the rice. The bags were inoculated with
1 ml of a conidial suspension (107
/ml) from malt extract agar slant
and incubated at 30 °C for 4 days, and the bags were hand shaken
daily to avoid clump production. At the end of incubation period,
the substrate was dried in a forced air draft oven at 40 °C over night.
The viable count (cfu/g) of A. flavus in the substrate was determined
by homogenizing 10 g in 90 ml of peptonewater 0.1% (wt/v). Thismix-
ture was then shaken and diluted to final concentrations of 10−2
and
10−3
. From each dilution, 0.1 ml was spread in triplicate on Dichloran
Rose Bengal Chloramphenicol (DRBC) modified with 3% NaCl (Horn
and Dorner, 1998). The Petri dishes were incubated in darkness for
5–7daysat30°C.