Aflatoxin contamination of spices sold in different markets of peshawar

The present study was carried out to investigate the contamination level of total aflatoxin in locally available spices collected from three different locations of peshawar. eighteen samples of six different types of spices such as coriander,cumin seed,powdered red pepper,omum seed,black pepper and turmeric powder were analyzed for aflatoxin b1,b2,g1 and g2 by using thin layer chromatography. out of 18,analyzed samples 12 samples were found contaminated with aflatoxin b1 and. in the samples of hashtnagri coriander (5.59 μg / kg total aflatoxin) was found contaminated above the maximum level (4 μg / kg) prescribed by european commission,while the other samples were either not contaminated or contaminated below the maximum level. omum and turmeric were the samples contaminated (6.54 μg / kg) above the maximum level collected from firdos market. similarly the samples collected from haji camp have coriander (6.54 μg / kg) and omum seed (7.46 μg / kg) contaminated above the maximum level. the overall results revealed that coriander and omum seed were found contaminated very much in all the samples analyzed for total aflatoxin.