usage of gamma ray for preservation of some crops cultivated in egypt and sudan

peanut, maize, fenugreek and coriander are important crops whereas they are considered as a main source of food, feed and raw materials for many industrial products. seeds of these crops like all kinds of seeds are subjected to invasion by many fungi in the field and during storage. some of these fungi under certain conditions, causes seed deterioration and others are capable to produce mycotoxins,that are toxic and carcinogenic to human and animal. in the present study, attempts have been done to isolate and identify the fungi naturally present in the tested seeds.these fungi where screened for capability to produce mycotoxins in both synthetic liquid media and in natural media(seeds from which they were isolated). so the main objectives of these study were to investigate the possibility of eliminating these fungi by gamma irradiation during storage of these seeds and evaluation the effect of gamma irradiation on the activity of the predominant fungi and on other hand the effect og gamma irradiation and storage on percentage of seed invasion, seed germination, germ discoloration, seedling growth, the major chemical constituents and presence of mycotoxins