LAUSR

BACKGROUND Deoxynivalenol (DON) produced during the onset of fusarium head blight affects not only the quality and safety of wheat but also causes serious harm to human and livestock health. However, due to the high stability of DON, it is difficult to disappear or reduce naturally after production. Cold plasma technology is a non-thermophysical processing technology that has been widely used for microbial inactivation and mycotoxin degradation. Herein, the degradation efficiency of DDBD cold plasma on DON inaqueous solution and wheat were studied, the structure of degradation products of DON and pathway were clarified, and the effect of DDBD plasma on wheat quality was evaluated. RESULTS Double dielectric barrier discharge (DDBD) cold plasma was used for efficient degradation of DON (0.5~5 μg/mL) solution and achieved the degradation rate of 98.94% within 25 min under the optimal condition (voltage 100 V, frequency 200 Hz, duty cycle 80%). Furthermore, ten degradation products (C15 H24 O5 , C15 H22 O6 , C15 H22 O9 , C16 H22 O7 , C15 H20 O7 , C15 H20 O9 , C15 H18 O8 , C15 H22 O5 , C16 H24 O5 and C15 H18 O9 ) were identified by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-time of flight-mass spectrometry (UPLC-TOF-MS/MS) combined with Metabolitepilot and Peakview software. The degradation pathway of DON was obtained based on the chemical structures and accurate mass of these products. The DON degradation rate of 61% in wheat was achieved after 15 min treatment, which slightly affects the moisture content, proteins and wheat starch. CONCLUSION Applying DDBD to wheat could effectively reduce the level of DON contamination, which provided a theoretical basis for applying cold plasma to the degradation of DON in wheat. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.