Abstract

AFLATOXINS – SIX DECADES OF RESEARCH. 2. ARE AFLATOXINS CERTAINLY CAPABLE TO INDUCE LIVER CANCER?

*Saad M. Magdy

Abstract

During the last 6 decades, a lot of scientific reports were published on aflatoxins and aflatoxicosis. The huge number of reprints which might be several hundreds or thousands expressed the great attention of the scientific community in both developed and developing countries. Exposure to aflatoxins is commonly expected due to the wide spread natural occurrence of such hazards on most of foods of both plant and animal origin. Thus, exposure to aflatoxins could not be avoided which mandate an accurate risk analysis studies based on solid scientific base depending upon approved, not suspected data. It's well known that the acceptable daily intake (ADI) of any hazard represent the corner stone when conducting the risk analysis process of such hazard. ADI is commonly defined as the maximum amount of hazard can be ingested daily over a lifetime spam with no-observable adverse effect level (NOAEL) obtained from previous studies. The previous studies carrying a lot of contradicting data, so there is an urgent need to re-evaluate and thoroughly discuss most of the previous studies.

Keywords: Aflatoxins – risk analysis – acceptable daily intake (ADI) – no-observable adverse effect level (NOAEL) – hazards –hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).