Aflastatins: New streptomyces metabolites that inhibit aflatoxin biosynthesis

Aflatoxins are a group of mycotoxins produced by some strains of the fungi, Aspergillus parasiticus, Aspergillus flavus, and Aspergillus nomius. These aflatoxin-producing fungi are present ubiquitously in the world, but they don’t always produce the toxin. Under some environmental conditions of high temperature and humidity, especially at tropical or subtropical zones, they infect agricultural products such as peanuts or corn, and produce aflatoxins not only on the outside, but also on the inside. Aflatoxins were first found in 1960 as toxic metabolites produced by A. flavus which killed numerous turkeys in England. They also were shown to have an extremely potent carcinogenicity toward mammals and found as contaminates in a wide variety of food commodities. Aflatoxin is now generally recognized not only as an extremely toxic contaminant in foods and feeds, but also as one of the certain risk factors for liver cancer in humans. 1 Thus, control and management of aflatoxins have become issues of concern.