en تخصصي Special Original article Original article <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>Background: </strong>Aflatoxins (AFs) are the most prevalent carcinogenic mycotoxins, produced mainly by <em>Aspergillus flavus</em> and <em>A. parasiticus</em>. The general purpose of the present study was to use Dehydroacetic Acid (DHA) and Ozonated Water (OW) to control <em>A. flavus</em> growth and accumulation of Aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁) in Iranian pistachios.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>Methods:</strong> Three treatment pistachio groups were separately immersed in DHA (1 N) and OW (10 mg/L), and also combination of DHA and OW. Then, each group was contaminated with 1&times;10³ <em>A. flavus</em> cell suspensions. Also, sterile distilled water as well as cyclohexamide solutions were considered as negative and positive control, respectively. The solution inhibitory characteristics were assessed by enumeration of viable as well as cultivable fungal conidia on the samples. High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) technique was used for AFB₁determination. Data were analyzed by One way ANOVA and Tukey T-tests using SPSS, Inc, Chicago, IL software (v. 16.0).</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>Results:</strong> DHA and combinations of DHA and OW groups which exhibited no growth of <em>A. flavus</em>, had the most antifungal activity (<em>p</em><0.05) in comparison with the other groups. The highest AFB₁ contamination content was seen in negative control samples (6.19&plusmn;0.33 &micro;g/kg) and also OW treated ones (6.1&plusmn;0.32 &micro;g/kg). The least AFB₁ level was detected in DHA treated group (1.5&plusmn;0.21 &micro;g/kg) and combinations of DHA and OW (1.59&plusmn;0.21 &micro;g/kg). However, no AFB₁was found in positive control samples.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>Conclusion:</strong> We found that DHA showed antifungal and inhibitory activities more than OW in Iranian pistachios. Application of DHA is recommend for Iranian food industries as a potential mean for prevention of the fungi growth and AFB₁ accumulation in<br> pistachios nuts.</span></p> Pistacia, Aflatoxins, Aspergillus flavus, Dehydroacetic Acid, Ozone 87 92 http://jfqhc.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-123&slc_lang=en&sid=1 M Esmaeilzadeh Nooghi No Medical Biotechnology Research Center, Ashkezar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ashkezar, Yazd, Iran A A Jafari jaabno@gmail.com Yes Department of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, Medical School, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran S Sedighi Khavidak No Medical Biotechnology Research Center, Ashkezar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ashkezar, Yazd, Iran H Jafari No School of Pharmacy, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran