aflatoxin in Pistachio

Pistacia vera L. grows successfully in South-Eastern Anatolia due to its own ecological properties. Because of a high price of P. vera L. in domestic and foreign markets it becomes a good source of income for the producers. The most faced problem in its exportation is ‘aflatoxin’. Several methods are used for the detection of aflatoxin in P. vera L. However, for these methods, the developed laboratories, experienced personals and high-cost are needed. In this study, aflatoxin content of P. vera L. was investigated by using ELISA test which is used as a rapid, cheap and safe diagnostic technique in last decades. In addition, HPLC was applied for same samples and results obtained from ELISA were compared with those from HPLC. Plant materials used in this study were taken from P. vera L. Depots and wholesale trade stores and consisted of 38 different sources of P. vera L. samples. Aflatoxin B1 was determined over 2 ppb in 16 samples by ELISA. However there was no evidence about the total of aflatoxin. By HPLC, there were no evidence for aflatoxin B1 and also the total of aflatoxin. These results showed that the ELISA, is a molecular diagnostic test depends on protein content was more sensitive than HPLC. In this study ELISA test was used for the first time in the determination of alfatoxin content in P. vera L. kernels