Abstract
Alkaline oxidation of paralytic shellfish toxins with tert-butyl hydroperoxide yielded highly fluorescent derivatives. Even gonyautoxins I and IV and neosaxitoxin, which were nonfluorescing by previously proposed hydrogen peroxide oxidations, were successfully converted to fluorescent compounds. A continuous shellfish toxin analyzer was constructed by incorporating the reaction into a high pressure liquid chromatographic system. The limit of detection was within the range of 0.042.2 nmol for gonyautoxins I V, neosaxitoxin and saxitoxin.
