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Nutrient Interactions and Toxicity
Research Communication

Total Fumonisins Are Reduced in Tortillas Using the Traditional Nixtamalization Method of Mayan Communities^1,2

Edwin Palencia, Olga Torres, Winston Hagler^*, Filmore I. Meredith, Lonnie D. Williams and Ronald T. Riley^,3

Instituto de Nutricion de Centro America Y Panama (INCAP), Calzada Roosevelt, Zone 11, 09001 Guatemala; ^* Department of Poultry Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695; and Toxicology and Mycotoxin Research Unit, R. B. Russell Agricultural Research Center U.S. Department of Agriculture/ARS, Athens, GA 30604

³To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: rriley{at}saa.ars.usda.gov.

Fumonisin B₁ (FB₁) is a maize mycotoxin. In tortilla preparation, maize is treated with lime (nixtamalization), producing hydrolyzed FB₁ (HFB₁) due to loss of the tricarballylic acid side chains. This study determined the following: 1) whether nixtamalization by Mayan communities reduces total fumonisins, and 2) the steps in the process at which reduction occurs. Tortillas prepared by the traditional process contained FB₁, FB₂ and FB₃ and their hydrolyzed counterparts. There were equimolar amounts of FB₁ and HFB₁ in the tortillas, but the total fumonisins were reduced 50%. The total FB₁ plus HFB₁ in the residual lime water and water washes of the nixtamal accounted for 50% of the total FB₁ in the uncooked maize. HFB₁ and FB₁ were present in a 1:1 mol/L ratio in the water washes of the nixtamal, the masa dough and the cooked tortillas, whereas the ratio of HFB₁:FB₁ in lime water after steeping was 21. Water washes contained 11% of the FB₁ that was in the uncooked maize. The results show that the traditional method reduced the total fumonisins in tortillas and reduced the sphinganine elevation (a biomarker closely correlated with fumonisin toxicity) in cells treated with extracts of tortillas compared with cells treated with extracts of contaminated maize.

KEY WORDS: • fumonisin B₁ • hydrolyzed fumonisin B₁ • maize • nixtamalization • tortillas

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