Abstract:
The aflatoxins are well suited for analysis by Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) since most of the compounds fluoresce under long wave ultraviolet (UV) light. The TLC technique serves as both purification and quantitation step. Before the TLC analysis, the peanut butter and crushed groundnut (peanuts) samples were separately de-fatted with light petroleum (boiling point 40 to 600C, ant the toxins within the samples were extracted from the de-fatted samples with methanol, and the extracts were purified by repetition solvent partition technique. The solvents used in the former technique were water-methanol mixture and chloroform, and aflatoxins have high affinity for chloroform. The obtained extracts were diluted to desirable concentrations and were then used for TLC analysis using silica gel Kieselgel G chromatoplate, and the mobile phase as the methanol-chloroform combinations. The quantitation of the results obtained was by fluorescence using fluorescent lamp (365 nm).
