Dr. Jing Sun (first author), from the team of Prof. Yingjian Lu, School of Food Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, published an article entitled "Acid modified attapulgite loaded with Acid modified attapulgite loaded with bacillomycin D for mold inhibition and mycotoxin removal".  

Aflatoxins (AFs) are secondary metabolites produced by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus, which are highly toxic and carcinogenic. There are more than 20 known aflatoxins, among which aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is the most toxic, with strong hepatotoxicity, teratogenicity and carcinogenicity.Bacillomycin D (BD) is a natural antimicrobial lipopeptide produced by the secondary metabolism of Bacillus sp. It has excellent biological activities, such as anti-fungal, anti-tumor, antioxidant, etc., and at the same time, it has the characteristics of green, safe, easy degradation and low drug resistance. safety, easy degradation, low drug resistance and other characteristics. Attapulgite (ATP) can provide a good carrier for antibacterial drugs. Acid modification of natural ATP resulted in H-ATP, which was loaded with BD to obtain a novel composite material (H-ATP-BD).   

In this study, H-ATP-BD composites were prepared by treating ATP with sulfuric acid to form H-ATP, and then BD was added to H-ATP to prepare H-ATP-BD composites as a composite adsorbent material with both inhibition of fungal growth and detoxification.The H-ATP-BD adsorbent has a high specific surface area, negative surface charge, and porous structure, which is the H-ATP-BD adsorbent's high adsorption capacity for AFB1 The main reason. When the initial AFB1 content was 20 ~ 50 μg/kg, the removal rate of Aspergillus flavus could reach 89.06% by adsorbing 0.6% of H-ATP-BD adsorbent at 50 °C for 2 h. The results showed that the removal rate of Aspergillus flavus could reach 89.06%. The diameter of the inhibition circle of the material against Aspergillus flavus was 20.30 mm.As a technological advantage, the composite adsorbent material has inhibitory effect on Aspergillus flavus and specific affinity for AFB1, which is expected to be used for freshness preservation and toxin removal of agricultural and sideline products.  Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Graph：

Fig. 1 N2 adsorption/desorption isotherms of ATP and H-ATP (a), pore size curves (b), FTIR spectra (c), XRD curves (d), particle size (e) and potential size (f). Where ATP is attapulgite, H-ATP is attapulgite modified with sulfuric acid, ATP-BD is attapulgite with adsorbed BD, and H-ATP-BD is acid-modified attapulgite composite with adsorbed BD. Note: Different letters in figures e and f represent significant differences between data (p<0.05).

Fig. 2 Effect of adsorption on BD content and adsorption efficiency under different conditions. (a) Effect of different sulfuric acid concentrations of H-ATP on BD adsorption; (b) Effect of different initial BD content on BD adsorption; (c) Effect of H-ATP dosage on BD adsorption; (d) Effect of adsorption time on BD adsorption; (e) Effect of adsorption temperature on BD adsorption.

Fig. 3 Inhibition circles diameter of H-ATP, BD, and H-ATP-BD against A. flavus and A. niger. Note: Different letters represent significant differences between data (p<0.05).

Fig. 4 Effect of adsorption on AFB1 content and AFB1 removal efficiency. (a) Effect of different initial AFB1 content on AFB1removal efficiency; (c) Effect of the amount of H-ATP-BD composite on AFB1removal efficiency; (d) Effect of adsorption time on AFB1 removal efficiency; (e) Effect of adsorption temperature on AFB1 removal efficiency.