Degradation of aflatoxin B in corn by water-assisted microwave irradiation and its kinetic.

Aflatoxin B (AFB) is a highly toxic, carcinogenic, teratogenic, and mutagenic mycotoxin commonly found in corn. In this work, water-assisted microwave irradiation (WMI) was used to degrade AFB in corn, during which the influencing factors and kinetics of AFB degradation were also studied. The results showed that the degree of corn crushing, the heating rate of WMI, the temperature of WMI, the solid-liquid ratio, the initial content of AFB and the microwave power were all important factors affecting the degradation of AFB. With the increase of WMI temperature, AFB content in corn, microwave power and the decrease of solid-liquid ratio, the degradation rate of AFB in corn by WMI rose continuously. Its maximum degradation rate was more than 90.6%. Meanwhile, the degradation kinetics of AFB in corn revealed that the degradation process of WMI followed a pseudo-first-order kinetic equation. It was demonstrated that water molecules not only acted as solvents for AFB but also actively participated in its degradation process within corn samples during WMI treatment. Consequently, the results indicated that WMI was an effective method for degrading AFB in corn.