AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION CENTRE www.arccjournals.com *Corresponding author’s e-mail: kumar.maneesh11@gmail.com 1 Department of Biotechnology, Magadh University, Bodh Gaya, Patna-824 234, Bihar, India. 2 ICMR-Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agam kuan, Patna-800 007, Bihar, Bihar, India. 3 Department of Botany, College of Commerce, Arts & Science, Patliputra University, Patna-800 020, Bihar, India. Agric. Sci. Digest., 39(1) 2019: 75-78 Print ISSN:0253-150X / Online ISSN:0976-0547 Analysis of impact of anaerobic condition on the aflatoxin production in Aspergillus parasiticus Speare Maneesh Kumar* 1 , Harish Kumar 1 , Roshan Kamal Topno 2 and Jainendra Kumar 3 Department of Biotechnology, Magadh University, Bodh Gaya-824 234, Bihar, India. Received: 02-11-2018 Accepted: 11-02-2019 DOI: 10.18805/ag.A-5161 ABSTRACT Aflatoxins are the natural carcinogens that are the best characterized as fungal secondary metabolites. The producers that are responsible for aflatoxin biosynthesis are strongly associated in toxic contamination of essential agricultural products. Aspergillus parasiticus is an exclusive fungus that participates in causing hepatic problems in humans and cattle. These mycotoxins are greatly influenced by abiotic stresses. The fungal growth, proliferation and its toxigenicity are highly influenced by these stresses. Present study aimed to restrict the mycelial growth and to prevent aflatoxin preparation in A. parasiticus under the anoxic stress. The monosporic strains of A. parasiticus were grown in two different Erlenmeyer conical flasks containing Czapek Dox Broth and Czapek Dox Agar under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. The anoxic condition was maintained using Anaero Bag System. Aflatoxin was isolated after 10 days, and quantitative estimation was done by using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The experimental outcome showed that there was a drastic decrease in both the morphological growth and the aflatoxin biosynthesis of A. parasiticus in anoxic state. Key words: Aflatoxin, Anaerobic, Anaero Bag System, Aspergillus, HPLC. Aflatoxins are a group of naturally occurring carcinogenic fungal polyketide-derived secondary metabolites that frequently contaminate agricultural commodities in tropical and temperate regions of the World (Wang et al . 2013; Kumar et al . 2018a). The actual occurrence and production of aflatoxins are greatly influenced by environmental factors including weather, geographical locations, substrate composition and agronomic practices (Ross et al., 1992; Pande and Mishra, 2018). They are the low molecular weight organic compounds produced by imperfect Aspergillus sp and are belong to the furocoumarin cyclopentenone series (Kumar et al., 2017a). Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), Aflatoxin B2 (AFB2), Aflatoxin G1 (AFG1) and Aflatoxin G2 (AFG2) are the popular known mycotoxins commonly produced by aflatoxigenic fungi. Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus are predominantly known for aflatoxin production (Singh et al. 2017). A. nomius, A. pseudotamarii, A. pseudocaelatus, A. pseudonomius, and A. bombycis are some other known aflatoxigenic fungi (Frisvad et al. 2019). Morphologically, Aspergillus species are well differentiated (Kumar et al. 2017b; Kumar et al. 2018b). Periodic consumption of aflatoxin contaminated foods may lead to hepatocellular carcinoma in humans and other animals (Webster and Weber, 2007; Kumar et al. 2017c; Kumar et al. 2018c). Generally, fungi are aerobic heterotrophs but some are facultative anaerobes. Ecologically also they are well adapted in both aerobic and anaerobic condition. As far as A. parasiticus is concern, it being well adapted to grow fast under aerobic condition and its growth under anaerobic condition (low oxygen tension) is underestimated. In this present study, we evaluate the physiological and morphological effects on A. parasiticus along with reduction in aflatoxin production. Monosporic strains of A. parasiticus was obtained from Pondicherry University, India. It was grown in two different 250 ml Erlenmeyer conical flasks, each containing 50 ml of autoclaved Czapek Dox Broth (CDB) (TM Media, India). Both broth media were allowed to cool at 45 °C and 500 μl streptomycin (an antibiotic) solutions was used in both flasks to restrict any bacterial growth. The fungi was also inoculated on sterilized Czapek Dox Agar (CDA) media (TM Media, India), for its microscopic analysis under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions (The 15 ml of CDA medium in different sterilized Petri-plates were taken under aseptic region (Fig 1a & Fig 1b). The CDB and CDA media were incubated likewise and in same time period. The one group was incubated in aerobic condition while the other group was incubated under anaerobic condition, at 28 °C for 10 days (Kumar et al. 2017b). Anaerobic condition was created