The silymarin complex extracted from milk thistle provides significant health benefits, particularly due to its antioxidant and hepatoprotective properties. However, plant substances can be contaminated by a number of fungi types and their secondary metabolites-mycotoxins. This work deals with the determination of aflatoxins and zearalenone and its metabolites in 39 different samples grown in 2020 and 2021. Analysis of mycotoxins was performed by UHPLC-MS/MS after immunoaffinity column AFLAPREP® and EASI-EXTRACT® ZEARALENONE clean-up. The presence of aflatoxins was not confirmed in the monitored samples, but 1/3 of the samples were contaminated with zearalenone in the range of 2.8-378.9 µg/kg. Metabolites of zearalenone such as α-zearalenol, α-zearalanol, and β-zearalanol were not detected in any of the samples. β-Zearalenol was found in two samples (2.6 µg/kg and 29.8 µg/kg).

• Keywords
• Aflatoxins, Food safety, Milk thistle, UHPLC-MS/MS, Zearalenone,
• MeSH
• Aflatoxins analysis   MeSH
• Food Contamination * analysis   legislation & jurisprudence   MeSH
• Mycotoxins * analysis   MeSH
• Silybum marianum * chemistry   microbiology   MeSH
• Tandem Mass Spectrometry MeSH
• Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid MeSH
• Zearalenone analysis   MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Aflatoxins MeSH
• Mycotoxins * MeSH
• Zearalenone MeSH