The aflatoxin producing fungi, Aspergillus spp., are widely spread in nature and have severely contaminated food supplies of humans and animals, resulting in health hazards and even death. Therefore, there is great demand for aflatoxins research to develop suitable methods for their quantification, precise detection and control to ensure the safety of consumers’ health. Here, the chemistry and biosynthesis of the mycotoxins is discussed their occurrence and the health hazards to humans and livestock. This review focuses on resources, production, detection and control measures of aflatoxins to ensure food and feed safety. The results presented herein will facilitate health-conscious consumers and for experts, while providing knowledge on new and innovative approaches to ensure food safety and meet the future demands of the increasing population by decreasing the incidence of outbreaks by aflatoxins.

Aflatoxins produced by the Aspergillus species are highly toxic, carcinogenic, and cause severe contamination to food sources, leading to serious health consequences. Contaminations by aflatoxins have been reported in food and feed, such as groundnuts, millet, sesame seeds, maize, wheat, rice, fig, spices and cocoa due to fungal infection during pre- and post-harvest conditions. Besides these food products, commercial products like peanut butter, cooking oil and cosmetics have also been reported to be contaminated by aflatoxins. Even a low concentration of aflatoxins is hazardous for human and livestock. The identification and quantification of aflatoxins in food and feed is a major challenge to guarantee food safety. Therefore, developing feasible, sensitive and robust analytical methods is paramount for the identification and quantification of aflatoxins present in low concentrations in food and feed. There are various chromatographic and sensor-based methods used for the detection of aflatoxins. The current review provides insight into the sources of contamination, occurrence, detection techniques, and masked mycotoxin, in addition to management strategies of aflatoxins to ensure food safety and security.

The fumonisins producing fungi, Fusarium spp., are ubiquitous in nature and contaminate several food matrices that pose detrimental health hazards on humans as well as on animals. This has necessitated profound research for the control and management of the toxins to guarantee better health of consumers. This review highlights the chemistry and biosynthesis process of the fumonisins, their occurrence, effect on agriculture and food, along with their associated health issues. In addition, the focus has been put on the detection and management of fumonisins to ensure safe and healthy food. The main focus of the review is to provide insights to the readers regarding their health-associated food consumption and possible outbreaks. Furthermore, the consumers’ knowledge and an attempt will ensure food safety and security and the farmers’ knowledge for healthy agricultural practices, processing, and management, important to reduce the mycotoxin outbreaks due to fumonisins.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is a dreaded pandemic in lack of specific therapeutic agent. SARS-CoV-2 Mpro, an essential factor in viral pathogenesis, is recognized as a prospective therapeutic target in drug discovery against SARS-CoV-2. To tackle this pandemic, Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs are being screened against SARS-CoV-2 Mpro via in silico and in vitro methods to detect the best conceivable drug candidates. However, identification of natural compounds with anti-SARS-CoV-2 Mpro potential have been recommended as rapid and effective alternative for anti-SARS-CoV-2 therapeutic development. Thereof, a total of 653 natural compounds were identified against SARS-CoV-2 Mpro from NP-lib database at MTi-OpenScreen webserver using virtual screening approach. Subsequently, top four potential compounds, i.e. 2,3-Dihydroamentoflavone (ZINC000043552589), Podocarpusflavon-B (ZINC000003594862), Rutin (ZINC000003947429) and Quercimeritrin 6”-O-L-arabinopyranoside (ZINC000070691536), and co-crystallized N3 inhibitor as reference ligand were considered for stringent molecular docking after geometry optimization by DFT method. Each compound exhibited substantial docking energy >−12 kcal/mol and molecular contacts with essential residues, including catalytic dyad (His41 and Cys145) and substrate binding residues, in the active pocket of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro against N3 inhibitor. The screened compounds were further scrutinized via absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion - toxicity (ADMET), quantum chemical calculations, combinatorial molecular simulations and hybrid QM/MM approaches. Convincingly, collected results support the potent compounds for druglikeness and strong binding affinity with the catalytic pocket of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro. Hence, selected compounds are advocated as potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro and can be utilized in drug development against SARS-CoV-2 infection.