The Science of Mold Toxins

[@That_Chemist]

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[@user-hq2fy5cs1k]

Love your content , keep it up

[@yamifroslass22]

As a Chinese-American, I grew up eating freshly roasted peanuts that my parents would always buy raw at the Asian grocery store, then roast at home. When my dad taught me how to roast the raw peanuts myself, he always emphasized to manually pick through the peanuts I was about to cook and discard any sketchy-looking peanuts to reduce the risk of Alfatoxin B1 exposure

[@twokharacters]

I worked as a chemist for over 6 years with mycotoxins. Our company produced test kits for the food industry for things like common allergens and mycotoxins. My department was the beginning of the line, manufacturing 100s of different lab reagents for use in lateral flow and ELISA products. This included purified antibodies, cross-linked antigens, and working standards for the kits and internal use. We worked with several motifs of all the favorite toxins: afla B1/B3, fum B1/B3, DON, T2, HT2, ochratoxin. You name it, we probably had it our lab, and A LOT of it. The work was very enjoyable but came with great risk, it wasn't a job for every chemist that's for sure. Often we'd have to don full face respirators while working at a fume hood. Concentrated lyophilized toxin samples are not something you want to risk breathing even a microgram of. Especially since the risk for many of these is cancer. One may not know they've been overly exposed until years down the road. Another risk is that mycotoxins often prefer organic solvents, increasing the risk of dermal transmissibility. We would often have to manipulate the toxin into more reactive forms, such as creating an oxime group, during the cross-linking processes. This would drastically increase the danger involved with working with the toxins. Our department would also assist research and development to implement and improve processes. In my research it was fascinating to see how little study has been done to robustly understand mycotoxins. There were a few times where I was sitting at my bench and I would think "is this the first time someone has thought of this, has no one attempted this experiment this way before?" Surely someone had somewhere, most information is proprietary, locked inside of corporations, and definitely not published in journals, but it's a cool feeling that I would have never felt if it were not for mycotoxins.

[@AdrianFlores-rt9ry]

I work at a large scale mushroom farm. I am constantly surrounded by different types of mold but the main ones are trichoderma and neaurospora. How at risk do you think I am when it comes to mycotoxins? The company I work for doesn’t really take our safety seriously so here I am having to question everything we’re exposed to

[@twokharacters]

@@AdrianFlores-rt9ry I am certainly not qualified to comment on your specific situation so do not take anything I say as professional advice or without your own investigation. As far as the toxins I mentioned and the ones in the video, they're associated mainly with crop toxins. I have not heard of them growing on mushrooms, but its possible. Mycotoxin study is very much an emerging field. If they were present the danger is likely low. Concentrations around you are probably safe and they really need to be ingested over long periods of time to be an issue at those levels. HOWEVER, that may not be the case for your molds. I highly recommend looking up the SDS sheets for those toxins and checking out the PPE sections. They can often be vague so if you're super concerned you can submit a ticket with OSHA (you don't have to mention the company you work for) and ask them what the specific laws surrounding workplace hazards are for your job and location. I also recommend checking out the CSB video covering the poison gas incident at a mushroom farm. Very tragic but extremely informative.

[@iridiumnext4126]

8 views, 14 likes, that's well equalized for a chemistry channel

[@That_Chemist]

latency be like

[@jabrae312]

Must be Figueroa

[@1brytol]

He just used a catalyst for his like formation reaction

[@e11iott.h_]

Love that 175% yield

[@BCQM_BCQM]

According to the first 2 examples, it seems like 3 member ring epoxide can be very dangerous. I think it will definitely be fun to rank the most lethal motif tier list in biochem.

[@That_Chemist]

mustard S-tier

[@thesaddestdude3575]

@@That_Chemist Is mustard bad? But i love mustard on my glaced ham!

[@kevsonkeyboard]

Lots of things that can either react directly with DNA, disrupt the hydrogen bonding between base pairs, or "fit in geometrically" in between the base pairs/DNA nucleotides, disrupting the shape of the DNA.

[@NoLongerBreathedIn]

Most lethal? Azide, definitely. Can kill you in two ways.

[@SuperAngelofglory]

In Romania, the mold that makes T-2 is known as corn coal

[@That_Chemist]

haha

[@wailingalen]

Interesting language tidbit!! Thank you from a Vietnamese american

[@weissschnee9117]

I'm an analytical chemist in a nutritional testing lab and it's refreshing to see the toxins I have to test for popping up in your videos (aflatoxin and patulin). Came across your content recently and it's very well made, thank you for your work 😊

[@That_Chemist]

Awesome! It’s nice to hear that they actually matter :)

[@kratsatlu]

Same here, although alfatoxin?

[@weissschnee9117]

@@kratsatlu I'm sorry, I don't understand the question

[@Relkond]

They did, as I understand it, ‘just dose people’ with radio-nucleotides to study their effects, and with nerve agents of one tests used was releasing a cloud of toxin and seeing if people could outrun it. I appreciate that it’s not a common/accepted practice to just dose people with toxins to see what happens, but not everyone thinks to stop and ask ‘should we?’ Ethics is important. To be fair, some of the tests may have made sense when we knew little/nothing about the effects…

[@pseudolullus]

Wrt Aflatoxin, it is really interesting to see how liver metabolism adds an epoxy group that will wreak havoc into the body, binding to DNA bases and other things

[@defenestrated23]

It's a pro-"drug" for the toxin. Kinda like methanol. The metabolite is worse than the main compound.

[@pseudolullus]

@@defenestrated23 or ethanol, for that matter

[@mmmhorsesteaks]

That cytochrome p450 gets into all kinds of hijinks!

[@kylieschuttloffel1261]

i hardly understand what youre saying but i like to listen to you cause its clear youre talking about something you enjoy, and your voice is just really soothing

[@That_Chemist]

Thank you :)

[@_iakvb771]

I have a genuine fear of mold, thank you for confirming that they are terrible ❗😀😃

[@MadScientist267]

I am doing battle with the shit at the moment (minor water damage)

[@user-ze7tl2dw4i]

without fungal chemicals we wouldn't have as many antibiotics (penicillin), organ transplant chemotherapies (cyclosporin), fungicides (strobilurin), cholesterol reducing drugs (lovastatin), psychiatric therapies (psilocybin), contraction inducers (ergot alkaloids), etc. we use fungal chemicals daily.

[@CarterColeisInfamous]

5:27 do more of this! I'm very interested in metabolic products and pathways stuff gets transformed through

[@AdrianFlores-rt9ry]

To preface this I work at a large scale mushroom farm. Once I read a case study about skin rash started by shittake spores and my worst spore lung episode happened after lots of shittake spore exposure, i even think my skin got irritated. Also the substrates are shipped in bags and upon opening shittake bags crazy smells come out and can cause headaches. The effects described by some of these mycotoxins are very similar to my experience with shittakes and it has me wondering.

[@That_Chemist]

Here is an article about the volatile components of Shittake - DOI: 10.1002/jsfa.8622

[@AdrianFlores-rt9ry]

@@That_Chemist thank you sm you’re awesome! I’ve been meaning to dig deeper into this in order to make my workplace safer

[@Shniedelwoodz]

Fusarium can also take down your lovely orchids at home. Look the signs for infection up. Sadly, it's a pretty cool looking purple ring. Takes down the plant by clogging up the water channels. Fun fact: this mold was used in biological warfare (Agent Green).

[@pmathewizard]

TC: Introducing dark mode Gamer (Current and Future) Chemist: That's exactly what I have been waiting for.

[@Nicolas-qk7lt]

Another great biochem video very informative! So cool to see you getting sponsorship, this channel has great potential.

[@That_Chemist]

Thanks so much!

[@HighMansx]

Typo at 6:20 in the title and subsequent slides, Aflatoxin not Alfatoxin. Do I get a prize! lol Love the videos!

[@That_Chemist]

FML

[@twokharacters]

@@That_Chemist You got it correct in the citation :D

[@brianbrandt25]

I cringed hard every time he mispronounced aflatoxin as alfa toxin.

[@RobKaiser_SQuest]

I have an ex whose family runs the local grain elevator, every load that comes in is sampled and tested for moisture, test weight etc, but also for Fusarium, Aspergillus and a few other molds mentioned here. I can't remember which but some molds can be spotted by sight, the kernels are shriveled and discoloured.

[@slurpysophie]

I'm loving the many videos that your uploading, they are all amazing! Great work! (VERY small remark/tip, on the first silde the title is a bit hard to read, maybe you can make the: 'That Chemist' + logo a bit darker so they logo is more easily read) btw, thank you for making this great chem-content!

[@TreHazenF]

Never went so deep into this topic. To say the video was interesting is an understatement! loved it

[@That_Chemist]

Thank you!

[@bruhmoment1835]

Hey That! Love the vids Quick correction: Aspergillus sp. produce aflatoxins, not alfatoxins

[@That_Chemist]

yeah :/

[@At0mix]

Fun fact, they're named after Aspergillus flavus (A. fla. toxin). Alpha-toxins are different, they are bacterial protein toxins. They form nanopores on cell membranes, and Na/K/Ca ion influx then causes cell death and necrosis.

[@pattheplanter]

Easy to remember from it coming from _Aspergillus flavus_ - _A. flavus_ - at least they didn't call it aspergilluflavotoxin.

[@ussartubb2737]

Random thing of note with Fusariums and some fungi metabolites (quinones) is they can be used as substitutes for petrochem quinones where you need something aromtatic with redox potential (some redox batteries and pigment manufacture).

[@Khalastas]

Loving these toxin vids, pointing out you've made a bunch of small mistakes lately. Principally would be naming aflatoxin as alfatoxin in the slide heading. I appreciate the video rate but it might be worth checking again! These videos will be around a long time!

[@philemon26]

I love your new dark video background.

[@That_Chemist]

Thanks!

[@voidlesslove3123]

I failed high school Chemistry this year, but I still have an interest. Thank you for the videos

[@That_Chemist]

Sorry to hear that :(

[@propyl_acetate]

That Chemist got a Brilliant sponsorship - moving up in the world!

[@That_Chemist]

This is my 2nd one! They also sponsored my Skunk video!

[@leandroguzman4384]

I wish all based ThatChemist viewers a good evening.

[@joshuawalters8790]

I really enjoyed the biosynthesis

[@iambenmitchell]

At 2:44 you talk about Nitropropionic Acid, which is what ended up killing the guy in Chubbyemu's video. The guy drank and immediately spat out a coconut that sat in the kitchen for a month. Very quickly he was in an ambulance and he died 26 hours later. Crazy!

[@lapisinfernalis9052]

All these "yummy" pictures reminds me of a potato i peeled last week. I saw a damaged, but still hard area and i thought, "no problem just cut it o... iiiiiiiihhhhhhhh". The complete inside of that potato was a brown hole with tiny flies coming out. It was so disgusting.

[@That_Chemist]

*barfs*

[@billymurphy3]

Can you make a video about household molds and other potential household exposures someone could be at risk for?

[@lejendarykitsune]

Yes, sponsors!!!

[@user-hq2fy5cs1k]

Love your content , keep it up

[@That_Chemist]

Thank you :)

[@abrahamel-gothamy6472]

Look at that sponsor!! Congratulations man!

[@That_Chemist]

Thanks :)

[@toni6194]

Cool video. Congratulations you now have a sponser!

[@That_Chemist]

Thanks! This is my second sponsored video :)

[@sjn7220]

Cool! I’m actually working on a project involving fumonisin B1.

[@That_Chemist]

Cool!

[@Valdagast]

Would Patulin be aromatic?

[@That_Chemist]

the furan ring is technically aromatic

[@THYZOID]

Hell biosynthesis. I hoped to find some nice and easy to make mushroom toxins. Anyways great and entertaining as always

[@That_Chemist]

[@finnguri8879]

Thought I was done with chemistry after A-levels but here I am

[@MrTechguy365]

Interesting. I know that during apple harvest even the Moldy ones get picked. But they are used for making drinking alcohol only. The worse ones become the cheaper alcohol. Hopefully this does eliminate some of the dangerous stuff.

[@That_Chemist]

if it's distilled then its fine, but it will definitely impact the drinker if no QA is done to test for levels of mycotoxins

[@MrTechguy365]

@@That_Chemist that's good to know. Thanks. But I better not trust the German village QA department :D

[@TigasCraft42]

thanks for the dark theme, my eyes thank you!

[@That_Chemist]

:)

[@bolek6580]

Does anyone know why older fruits/veg are more selectable to mold/rot?

[@Decapod73]

Try leaving your meat/dairy out at room temperature and see if they are slower to mold than your veg. (Hint: they're not)

[@aryanhavrest]

Dunno if this was pointed out, but just in case: It's Aflatoxins, not Alfa- as in the greek letter alpha. So if anyone is gonna write an essay on them or anything, pay attention.

[@cookingandjava7574]

Could ethanol be considered a mycotoxin of the saccoromyces fungus?

[@That_Chemist]

Hmmm

[@espanadorada7962]

I vote yes lol

[@madansharma2700]

Very good video

[@That_Chemist]

Thank you :)

[@bruhmoment1835]

Can you do a motifs tier list?

[@That_Chemist]

I have one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/opyTY4qfbrumr7s

[@bruhmoment1835]

@@That_Chemist oh pog thanks!!

[@gustavgnoettgen]

For a few years I couldn't eat rice that was cooked the day before. It didn't smell differently, I couldn't see anything. I was the only one in my family who had these symptoms, except for one time when my mom had them too: an increasing nausea, sweat and eventually puking. After that the symptoms vanished quickly. It only affected rice. Pasta, potatoes and bread were fine. Freshly cooked rice was also fine. I suspect mould or bacteria. Anyone else who had similar issues?

[@That_Chemist]

Interesting

[@CarterColeisInfamous]

2:21 thats scary/cool

[@stephenjacks8196]

Isn't Ergot still a mold on grain? And the historical impact of "Saint Vitus Dance"? Ergotamine?

[@ortholux2343]

Ergots lifecycle is a bit more complicated than that of a simple mold.

[@Decapod73]

Yes. But he's split mycotoxins over three videos at this point, with room for a 4th & 5th.

[@AnimeShinigami13]

Watching this video is not the first time I've wondered whether or not minor digestive issues from eating gluten may actually be mold mycotoxins.

[@That_Chemist]

that's actually a really interesting point

[@katiefrisk980]

our lab does biochemical reactions with aflatoxin b1 (afb1) in order to make dna-protein conjugates with it. guess how we convert it into the active epoxide form? thats right… using dmdo, aka acetone peroxide monomer (which we generate from acetone and oxone; the yield of dmdo is terrible, but we don’t need a lot of it to make the epoxide & the resulting product from dmdo and afb1 is very clean). gotta love using explosives to make wmds.

[@pmathewizard]

First group of Subscriber be like after seeing the first sponsor for TC: **extreme happiness noises**

[@HiwasseeRiver]

At ease Disease, there's a fungus among us! Not my field, but it reminds me of that mushroom that can feed a man for the rest of his life.

[@Gilberto90]

Why are mycotoxins so nasty? Is it because they assist the parasitization of host organisms or are they to prevent ingestion of hosts by other organisms? I can understand why fungi with fruiting bodies such as mushrooms would have defenses against being eaten as it reduces spore propogation but many of these kinds of fungi are mycorrhiyzal (mutualistic with hosts). Is the toxicity of molds that colonise food crops a secondary side effect of toxins that are mainly adapted to target and attack host cells (I'm guessing that inducing apoptosis through DNA damage makes the cells biomass easier to digest without having to attack the strong cell wall?) or is there a primary adaptation to also target organisms that consume the molds primary hosts?

[@Bobbidibob]

Really nice Video! More Biosynthesis! PS: Its called AFLAtoxin...

[@leplayz4499]

Cool video

[@That_Chemist]

thanks!

[@StoneWaterGlass]

Its called Aflatoxin B1? Not Alfatoxin B1. Thanx for a interesting review

[@jadegrace1312]

2:58 Damn that sucks

[@FishyJ]

Moldy toxins are bad for rats, luckily none died in this video. Running total: 2

[@That_Chemist]

thank you for keeping track :)

[@jpopelish]

I think that is aflatoxin, not alfatoxin. Sterigmatocystin: the ending sounds more like sys tin than sigh tin.

[@That_Chemist]

my b

[@Godwh1sperer]

Is there a compelling reason you consistently misspell Aflatoxin as Alfatoxin?

Sponsor!!

[@sheldonwhite1886]

Aflatoxin, not Alfatoxin.

[@That_Chemist]

noooooooooooo

[@sheldonwhite1886]

No problem, love your channel!

[@NathanPrice6]

WE GOT THE SPONSOR LET'S GOO

[@tmo314]

3:50 *checks my iPhone for patulin*

[@inferior2884]

NPA looks suspiciously similar to succinate.

[@StuffAndThingss]

seems you thought it was "alfatoxin" 6:29 ?

[@That_Chemist]

I dinked it up

[@StuffAndThingss]

​@@That_Chemist All good. Aflatoxin and Ochratoxin are a federally mandated tests in cannabis products; I work in a cannabis lab.

[@mmmhorsesteaks]

Your alfatoxin should be an aflatoxin, i think (the name comes from aspergillus flavus apparently)

[@That_Chemist]

my bad

[@jreelite7149]

Wooot, you got sponsored? Is this the first time, or do I have a lab rat memory?

[@That_Chemist]

This is the second

[@eier5472]

Hooray for dark mode

[@SirJeff]

3:23 Ah yes, symptoms include death

[@Esterified80]

Aliphatic ring systems tier list...

[@koukouzee2923]

the point is if corn doesnt look like corn dont eat it

[@That_Chemist]

yes

[@Decapod73]

@@That_Chemist unless it's moldy with cuitchacole - then it's a delicacy.

[@Decapod73]

unless it's moldy with cuitchacole - then it's a delicacy.

[@lurkmoar3926]

💡6:20 Aflatoxin, not Alfatoxin

[@Valdagast]

You write and say alfatoxin, but the mold one is _aflatoxin._ There is something called alphatoxin (because of course there is), but it comes from a bacterium.

[@That_Chemist]

Bames Nond had a Stronk

[@erni55555]

aflatoxins*

[@hoenheim94]

Im a little disappointed that you didnt mention the ergoline derivatives

[@That_Chemist]

I did in the last fungus video!

[@GerinoMorn]

I see a distinct lack of ergotamine here :D

[@That_Chemist]

It’s in the fungus video!

[@crabcrab2024]

It’s Aflatoxin! Not Alfatoxin;)

[@That_Chemist]

FML

[@crabcrab2024]

@@That_Chemist FML ? Is it a flexible machining line? 😂

[@pattheplanter]

@@crabcrab2024 Fluorometholone or a fucose-mannose ligand, I am not sure which one is meant here. 😉

[@crabcrab2024]

@@pattheplanter 😁

[@victorveshchenikin9770]

The Aflatoxin is correct, not the Alfatoxin. This name comes from Aspergillus FLavus species, so Aspergillus FLavus Toxin

[@enesince6329]

Wow Alfatoxin B1 doesnt look that poisonous 😄

[@Decapod73]

It's Aflatoxin, not Alfatoxin. He switched the letters in case you're googling it.

[@Jackson-lt8td]

You spelled alfatoxin differently sometimes you spelled it alfatoxin b1 and sometimes aflatoxin b1

[@jimmyc3238]

6:32 "Alfatoxin"??? You said it several times, and wrote it.... although you did spell it correctly in the lower right caption. C'mon, man, you're better than this. 😁

[@That_Chemist]

Bames Nond's Having a Stronk

[@freedoom323]

Those are called Aflatoxins, not Alfatoxins.

[@ChefSalad]

I'm pretty sure that it's not "alfatoxin", but "aflatoxin". That is all.

[@Decapod73]

Did you seriously call aflatoxin "alfatoxin"? THE aFLatoxin (F before L) that I was cursing you for omitting from your first mycotoxin video? Jesus Christ. Are you making mistakes on purpose for the engagement score through comments like this one?

[@jamesprince571]

Do u think these carcinogenic molecules can cure cancer?😏 Wats ur thoughts

[@That_Chemist]

cure? probably not, but if you feed them to someone and they start getting cancer, then you can stop giving it to them - bam cancer cured

[@jamesprince571]

@@That_Chemist 😂

[@francois-xavierdessureault8039]

aFLatoxin gosh darn it

[@flaplaya]

4th

[@lithiumferrate6960]

Absolutely disgusting. *laughs in microbiology*. Good video tho.

[@samiraperi467]

Afla, not alfa.

[@joeyho7646]

chubbyemu sent me here

[@yoavnavott]

First?

[@dav3864]

Second

[@user-ze7tl2dw4i]

afLAtoxin, not ALPHAtoxin.

[@A_Wet_Duck]

I'm sorry but throughtout the entire video you pronounce "a*fl*atoxins" as "alfatoxins" and it keeps bugging me

[@That_Chemist]

Yeah my bad

[@TomatDKProductions]

Are ergot alkaloids a form of mycotoxins?

[@That_Chemist]

yes! I talk about them in the fungus video

[@TomatDKProductions]

@@That_Chemist Yes I found out, been binge watching your channel the whole day :D