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Fungal mycotoxins pose a significant threat to the health of both human and livestock. Understanding the pressing need for a reliable and effective detection method. The current study aims to evaluate the presence of Fusarium head blight (FHB) mycotoxin contamination in wheat flour using thermogravimetry (TG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques. The TG curves of the contaminated flour samples exhibited three distinct mass losses steps, which corresponded to the thermal events when compared with the control samples. While, DSC analysis revealed the starch gelatinization process, with a decreasing in the gelatinization enthalpy (ΔH gel) for the three wheat genotypes in the contaminated flour samples ranging from 145 to 203 j/g compared to the non-contaminated ones which ranged from 195 to 254 j/g. These results warrant careful observation and analysis. The TG and DSC curves demonstrated high repeatability. Therefore, the thermal analysis approach presented here does not rely on any prior assumption about the thermal decomposition changes in wheat infected with F. culmorum. The current findings suggest that a combined TG and DSC approach could enable rapid, accurate, and sensitive detection of mycotoxins contamination in wheat flour.
Key words: Wheat, Fusarium culmorum, mycotoxin, thermal analysis, DSC, TG
