Abstract
Capsicum annuum (bell and chili peppers) is one of those vegetable crops growing in the warm areas. Pepper production conditions require drying fruits in most cases by the sun light. During drying processes, this crop is exposed to contamination with microorganisms, especially fungi. In this article, mycobiota of 60 samples of different chill products from retail markets and from food restaurants of Taif city was studied. Crushed chili showed high fungal load compared with chili sauce and chili powder, while chili powder showed high occurrence of aflatoxins. Aspergillus, Eurotium and Penicillium were the most common genera isolated from chili samples. The total aflatoxins potential of 35 isolates of A. flavus, A. parasiticus and A. tamarii were studied. Seventy percent of A. flavus isolates were aflatoxigenic. The frequencies of aflatoxin biosynthesis genes named afIR, nor-1, ver-1 and omtA were studied in the aflatoxigenic species of Aspergillus collected in this study. Forty-six percent of aflatoxigenic A. flavus isolates and one non aflatoxigenic one showed DNA fragments that correspond to the complete set of genes. In conclusion, the high co-occurrence of Aspergillus species able to produce aflatoxins, particularly in chili samples, suggested the need of a more efficient control during processing and storage to reduce fungal contamination, and additional legislation to consider the simultaneous presence of aflatoxins in these matrices.