Natural Deoxynivalenol Contamination of Corn Produced in Golestan and Moqan Areas in Iran

Deoxynivalenol contamination was determined in corn produced in Golestan and Ardabil (Moqan) Provinces, Iran, in 2004-2005. Samples were collected from different stages of production, including before harvest, at harvest, post harvest as well as after drying. Ground sub samples were extracted with water; each extracted sample was cleaned up through an immunoaffinity column. Deoxynivalenol was estimated through reversed-phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The linearity of standard curve for 50 -10,000 ng ml-1 of standard solutions was proved (R2= 0.9999). Detection limit was 10 ng g-1 . Recovery of the method for 1,000 and 500 ng g-1 spiked samples was 73.5% and 93.5% (n= 5). Deoxynivalenol contamination was found in 76.7% of samples in the range of 54.4-518.4 ng g-1. The mean of contamination was 116.25 ng g-1. This is the first report of natural DON contamination of corn from Iran