Abstract

Introdction: Patulin is a dangerous toxin produced by various fungi. Hence, the current study aimed to evaluate adsorption of Patulin by nanocellulose conjugated with Poly-guanine in contaminated apple juice.

Methods: Firstly, nanocellulose was synthesized, and then it was bonded to poly-guanine by a cross-linker. Then, concentration serial of Patulin was prepared in the apple juice, conjugated nanoparticles were added to them, and all were incubated at 37 ºC. After incubation, the Patulin concentration was measured by HPLC, and finally the adsorption percentage was calculated for each tube. Regarding molecular simulation, the initial structures of Patulin and nanocellulose conjugated with Poly-guanine were inserted into Hyperchem software, and their intermolecular energy was calculated during 50 picoseconds.

Results: The results of the present study demonstrated that there was a significant direct correlation between the initial concentration of Patulin and the adsorption percentage of toxin. In addition, the adsorption maximum was reported 70±5 %, and the intermolecular energy between two structures was -20.3 Kcal/mol based on the computational simulation.

Conclusions: It can be concluded that nanocellulose conjugated with Poly-guanine seems to be a good adsorbent for Patulin, which is demanded to be used in the future studies in regard with its application.