Mycobiota, Total Aflatoxins and Ochratoxin A of Cardamom Pods

Cardamom is added to Arabic coffee the most popular drink in Saudi Arabia, and used as an food additives in many dishes in Saudi kitchen, the mycological profile and mycotoxin contaminated of cardamom selling in different markets in western region (KSA) was studied. Using morphological criteria and internal transcribed space (ITS) region sequencing, 23 species belonged to 11 fungal genera were identified from 80 cardamom samples collected from the western region of Saudi Arabia. Aspergillus was the most common genus, followed by Penicillium and Cladosporium then Mucor. Total aflatoxins (AFs) was the predominant mycotoxins contaminating almost 67.5% of cardamom samples. While ochratoxin A (OTA) was found in 47.5% of the samples notably, 36.3% of them were contaminated with both AFs and OTA. The mean concentration of AFs and OTA in cardamom samples ranged from 42.7 to 164.7 ppb and from 30 to 78 ppb, respectively. Total aflatoxins and ochratoxin A potentials of the collected isolates of Aspergillus flavus, A. parasiticus, Aspergillus niger, A. ochraceous, Penicillium citrinum and P. verrucosum were detected. The species-specific primers for A. flavus (FLA1 and FLA2) and A. niger (ITS1 and NIG) were used to detect directly the contaminations of cardamom samples.