A chemical assay method for the determination of aflatoxin residues in animal tissues

Abstract

A method is presented for the determination of aflatoxins in animal tissues. It consists of extraction of aflatoxins from the sample with methanol, treatment of the residue with a mixture of dimethoxymethane-methanol (4 + 1) to further precipitate proteins, evaporation of dimethoxymethane followed by a liquid-liquid defatting with hexane and heating of the methanol-water mixture before the transfer of aflatoxins into chloroform. Chloroform extracts are further purified by silica gel—acidic alumina—anhydrous sodium sulfate column chromatography.