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Five different concentrations (100, 250, 500, 1000 and 2000 μg/L of aflatoxin B1 were found to be inhibitory to seed germination and seedling growth (root and shoot lengths) of mustard seeds (variety Pusa bold). These also lowered the levels of chlorophyll and carotenoids in the emerging leaves during seedling growth. The inhibitory effect was correlated with the concentration of applied toxin.

A total of seven species ofAlternaria: A. alternata (Fr.) Keissler;A. capsici-annui Savul & Sandu;A. citri Ellis & Pierce;A. porri (Ellis) Clfferi;A. radicina Meler, Drechsler & Eddy;A. tenuissima (Kunze: Pers) Wiltshire andA. tomato (Cooke) Jones were screened on rice culture medium for their ability to elaborate five majorAlternaria mycotoxins viz. tenuazonlc acid (TA), alternariol (AOH), alternariol methyl ether (AME), altenuene (ALT) and altertoxin-l (ATX-I). All the species produced mycotoxins in varying concentrations. A.capsici-annul was recorded as the mycotoxin producer for the first time. ALT byA. citri andA. tomato; ALT, and ATX-I byA. tenuissima; ALT, TA and AME byA. porri and TA byA. radicina are the new additions to the list of mycotoxins produced by the respective species ofAlternaria.

Physiological processes of maize seeds (Zea mays L var Suwan composite) were found to be affected by five different concentrations (linear relationship between 100 and 2,000 μ/L) of zearalenone and duration of soaking le 20 h. Inhibitions in seed germination (14-58 %), shoot length (16-61 %), root length (9-76 %), total chlorophyll (6-45 %), and carotenoid (5-73 %) were evident due to above treatments.

Freshly harvested maize samples, collected from different fields of Bhagalpur during January-March, 1989, were analysed for the presence of Fusarium species and their toxins.F. moniliforme was most common followed byF. roseum,F. sporotrichioides,F. graminearum andF. equiseti. Different strains of these species produced zearalenone (11.2-28.2 μ/g), DON (0.3-2.9 μg/g) and T-2 (5.2-20.6 μg/g) toxins on mostrice medium. Fifteen per cent, out of 86 maize samples analysed, were found to be contaminated with various levels of above toxins, which occurred either alone or in groups. Toxin concentration in contaminated samples varied from 0.76-1.5 μg/g (ZEN), 0.41-202 μg/g (DON) and 0.55-2.92 μg/g (T-2).