PSP Components of Toxified Short-necked Clams in Yamagawa Bay, Kagoshima Prefecture

Abstract

Our efforts were made to clarify the cause of a food poisoning in which a person provoked numbness in the mouth by ingesting the short-necked clam Tapes japonica from Yamagawa Bay, Kagoshima Prefecture.
The toxic shellfish specimens which were collected from Yamagawa Bay were shucked and extracted with 80% ethanol acidified with acetic acid. After being defatted with chloroform, the aqueous extract was purified by chromatography on Bio-Gel P-2 and Bio-Rex 70. The toxins prepared were analyzed by cellulose acetate strip electrophoresis and thin-layer chromatography on silica gel. The results indicated that toxins contained protogonyautoxins (PXs) 1-4 as the major components, together with gonyautoxins (GTXs) 1-6 as the minor, on molar basis.
We thus came to a conclusion that the aforementioned poisoning was caused by the paralytic shellfish poisons (PSPs) accumulated in the short-necked clam.