Investigation of initial peroxide index value influence on AFB1, AFB2, AFG2 and T-2 mycotoxins decomposition in sunflower oil

In this paper, experiments were conducted to investigate mycotoxins homogenous photodegradation using various peroxide index (IP, caused by peroxides and hydroperoxides) in order to assess the efficiency of sunflower oil decontamination by ultravilolet light irradiation. Was studied the UV assisted peroxides activation, their contribution to decompose mycotoxins, to decrease their concentration. Was proposed a mathematical model of the process, model parameters were identified and adjusted with software environment. The photodegradation process efficiency increased differentiated using sunflower oil with higher peroxide indexes; there exist optimal values of peroxide index for each investigated mycotoxin. This way, the observed rate constants can be increased and the residual mycocotoxin concentration can be decreased. Using favorable peroxide index value in decontamination process provides an effective technology for the removal of mycotoxins from contaminated sunflower oil. The rapid degradation is related to the inherently contented peroxides transformation in reactive free radicals, this radicals reacting with mycotoxins. With the elaborated model is possible to predict the concentrations of residual mycotoxins in different operating conditions depending on initial peroxide index values. Keywords: Mycotoxins, Aflatoxin B1, Aflatoxin B2, Aflatoxin G2, T-2 toxin, photochemical degradation, ultraviolet light, sunflower oil, peroxide index, HPLC.