Degradation of AFB1 in aqueous medium by electron beam irradiation: Kinetics, pathway and toxicology

• EBI was firstly proved as an effective degradation of AFB1 in aqueous medium.
• Structures of 5 degradation products were identified.
• Possible degradation pathway was proposed.
• Mutagenesis and cytotoxicity of degradation products were evaluated.

The degradation study of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in aqueous medium was performed under electron beam irradiation (EBI) at various AFB1 initial concentrations. It has been proven that the degradation of AFB1 in the selected ranges of concentrations follows pseudo first-order reaction kinetics well (R2 > 0.95). Five degradation products of AFB1 in aqueous solution were identified by UPLC-Q-TOF/MS, and the possible degradation pathway was proposed. The Ames and cytotoxicity tests were employed to evaluate the toxicity of the AFB1 degradation products in aqueous solution, and the results indicated that the mutagenicity and cytotoxicity of EBI treated samples decreased significantly compared with that of untreated samples, but were not completely disappeared. The study provided clues involving the application of EBI methods in AFB1 decontamination.