2.3.1. Aflatoxin B1 Binding Capacities of Lactobacilli

Figure 4 shows the lactic acid bacteria that could bind aflatoxin the best from the studied 105 strains. Only 14 strains were able to bind AFB1 above 5% at the studied mycotoxin concentration. The best AFB1 binding capacities in MRS broth were obtained for *L. pentosus* TV3 with 11.5% and *L. plantarum* AT26, AT3, and AT1 with 8–9% (Figure 4).

**Figure 4.** *Lactobacillus* strains with AFB1 binding capacities above 5% at 0.2 µg/mL mycotoxin concentration in MRS broth.

Thirty-three more strains were found with AFB1 binding capacities of 3–4% (Figure 5). For the remaining 58 strains only a smaller, less than 3%, the percentage of AFB1 binding could be observed. These results are significantly below the binding values generally presented between 17% and 83% in the literature [22–24].

The highest AFB1 binding abilities were found in our study for strains of *L. pentosus*, *L. plantarum*, and *L. graminis*. In the study of Huang et al., *L. plantarum* C88 presented the highest binding ability with AFB1 using AFB1 binding assay in vitro compared with other strains [29]. Though not aflatoxin, a high percentage of OTA reduction was obtained by *L. plantarum* and *L. graminis* in the studies of Belkacem-Hanf et al. [30]. It can be seen in Figure 6 that there is a close phylogenetic relationship among the lactobacilli strains with the best mycotoxin binding abilities, which might be an explanation for their good mycotoxin binding abilities.

**Figure 5.** *Lactobacillus* strains with AFB1 binding capacities of 3–5% at 0.2 µg/mL mycotoxin concentration in MRS broth.
