Natural Occurrence of Fungi and Aflatoxins Associated Sugarcane Plant and Sugarcane Juice and Their Control.

Sugarcane is one of the most important crops in the world. It is also considered the most popular fresh juice in Egypt. The sugar content of the sugarcane stem represents the main source of fungal growth. This study aimed to investigate the natural co-occurrence of fungi in sugarcane plants and juice, test of aflatoxins production by aflatoxigenic fungi, and improve the quality of sugarcane juice. The obtained results indicated a notable decrease in all physical parameters of the naturally infected sugarcane plants. Isolation of fungi from sugarcane plant and juice from three localities revealed that the highest mean fungal count was recorded in sugarcane rootlets (173.55 cfu/cm), followed by sugarcane stem (94.88 cfu/cm), while sugarcane juice had the least mean fungal count (24.33 cfu/mL). The frequency of the isolated fungi associated with sugarcane plant yielded 781 fungal isolates for rootlets, 427 fungal isolates for stems, and 219 fungal isolates for juice. Four isolates of Aspergillus parasiticus were aflatoxins producers. Higher aflatoxin quantity (1434.92 ng/mL) was produced by A. parasiticus (isolate No. 21) from sugarcane stem, while A. parasiticus (isolate No. 5) from sugarcane juice was less aflatoxins producer (276.95 ng/mL). On the other hand, lemon juice showed a significant reduction effect on the fungal count of peeled and non-peeled sugarcane juice. In which the highest reduction percent of the fungal count was recorded with 20% conc. of lemon on peeled sugarcane juice (36.04%).The obtained results concluded that lemon juice was found to decrease the fungal contaminants and improve the quality of sugarcane juice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]