Preliminary Results on Deoxynivalenol Degradation in Maize by UVA and UVC Irradiation

The aim of this work was to investigate the possibility of using UV irradiation for degradation of deoxynivalenol (DON) in naturally contaminated maize samples. The study was carried out by varying the distance of the contaminated maize from the UVA (368 nm) and UVC (254 nm) light source and duration of exposure of contaminated maize to UV irradiation. Two control samples of maize were used for the irradiation procedure, at DON levels of 1.902 mg/kg and 5.334 mg/kg. The samples were exposed to both UVA and UVC light at two different distances from UV lamp (15 and 30 cm) during three exposure intervals (30, 60 and 120 minutes). After irradiation DON content was determinated so the reduction levels could be quantified. Generally, the results showed reduced DON content in treated samples, but they were not consistent. The most probable reason for this was a very uneven DON distribution in naturally contaminated samples. For this reason, further research must be performed and should include irradiation of artificially inoculated samples with consistent DON distribution, the amount of irradiated sample needs to be enlarged and the higher number of replicates should be analyzed. As an additional improvement, an increase in frequency of sample mixing during the irradiation procedure needs to be done.