China Medicine Corporation has announced that the Company's proprietary ADTZ product was discussed as a viable means to reduce aflatoxins in the creation of ethanol based products from corn feed at the recent American Chemical Society, 233rd National Meeting Agricultural Biomass, Biobased Products, & Biofuels Symposium, which was held in Chicago, Illinois on March 25th through the 29th.
Dr Jiujiang Yu, Research Geneticist from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) presented his findings at the conference in regards to the presence of aflatoxins in corn feed and its implications in biofuel conversion from corn to ethanol. Aflatoxins have been known to be toxic and potent cancer inducing compounds. Aflatoxin contaminated corn can not be used for food and feed purposes, but can be used for ethanol production. However, aflatoxins could also be detrimental in fermentation and their potential hazard to health and to the environment when ethanol is used, as fuel is unclear. Future research may indicate it is necessary to remove or reduce aflatoxin levels in corn for use in ethanol production. Dr. Yu mentioned that the gene encoding for ADTZ enzyme can be engineered into fermentation organism used for ethanol production and hence aflatoxins could be effectively detoxified in the process.