Agmatine Contents in Mollusca and Marine Algae

Abstract

Guanidino compounds containing agmatine (AG) in the herbivorous gastropoda such as topshell Batillus cornutus and abalone Haliotis discus hannai, and in 25 species of the marine algae from 11 sampling places were analyzed in high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).
In the visceras of gastropoda from 11 sampling places, AG was detected in a wide range of 1.14-13.2mg/100g tissue in topshell and 0.1-33.8mg/100g tissue in abalone. AG was also found in the topshell muscle in the range between 0.71 and 2.65mg/100g tissue, on the other hand, no appreciable amount of AG was detected in the abalone muscle from any sampling place.
Many marine algae, natural foods for the herbivorous gastropoda, contained a detectable amount of AG.
In the tissues of carnivorous gastropoda such as Muricidae and Buccinidae and in the squid muscle, no detectable amount of AG was found. Moreover, in our preliminary experiments, azginine decarboxylase activities could not be detected in the topshell tissues.
From the above results, the origin of AG in molluscan tissues is considered to be algae.