Occurrence of Tetrodotoxin in the Causative Gastropod Polinices didyma and another Gastropod Natica lineata Collected from Western Taiwan
YU-CHENG SHIU1, YA-HUI LU1, YUNG-HSIANG TSAI2, SHU-KONG CHEN3 AND DENG-FWU HWANG1*
1.Department of Food Science, National Taiwan Ocean University, 2-Pei-Ning Rd., Keelung 202, Taiwan, R.O.C.2.Department of Food Sanitation, Tajen Institute of Technology, Pingtung, Taiwan, R.O.C.
3.National Laboratories of Foods and Drugs, Department of Health, Execultive Yuan, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
(Received: August 23, 2002; Accepted: October 25, 2002)
ABSTRACT
Attempts were made to elucidate the responsible toxins in the gastropod Polinices didyma which recently caused food poisoning incidents in western Taiwan. The remained (cooked) and captured (live) specimens of both gastropods were assayed for toxicity (as tetrodotoxin = TTX). Average toxicity of cooked and live specimens was 118 ± 105 and 47 ± 28 MU/specimen, respectively. In addition, another species Natica lineata collected from the same area was also found to be toxic. The toxin of each gastropod was partially purified from the methanolic extract of the gastropod by ultrafiltration and Bio-Gel P-2 column chromatography. HPLC and GC-MS analyses demonstrated that the toxin consisted of TTX. It was concluded that the causative agent of the above food poisoning was TTX.
Key words: Tetrodotoxins, gastropod, food poisoning, Polinices didyma, Natica lineata