Ammoniation of aflatoxin B1 in a pressure chamber used to decontaminate toxin‐containing cottonseed meal

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Abstract
Radiolabelled aflatoxin B1 mixed with non‐labelled B1 distributed on an inert carrier was treated in a pressurized ammoniation chamber with 4% ammonia at 40 psi and held at 100 C for 30 min. Twenty per cent of the radiolabel was lost, probably as volatiles. Less than 1% of the original toxin was recovered as B1 indicating that ammoniation altered the structure of essentially all of the B1. Approximately 20% of degraded aflatoxin B1 was accounted for as a 206 MW compound that exhibited properties of a nonfluorescent phenol with a difuran moiety but neither the lactone carbonyl nor the cyclopentenone ring of aflatoxin B1. The remaining degradation products were fragments of B1 having molecular weights less than 200.