Occurrence of paralytic shellfish poison in the purple clam Soletellina diphos (Bivalve)

Abstract

Attempts were made to elucidate the responsible toxin in the cultured purple clam Solerellina diphos which recently caused food poisoning incidents in South Taiwan. Ten clam specimens collected from the culture pond were assayed for the anatomical distri-bution of toxicity (as paralytic shellfish poison=PSP). The digestive gland showed the highest toxicity, 2, 000±1, 600(mean±S.E.) MU/g, followed by other parts (160±110MU/g) and siphon (33±24MU/g). The toxin was partially purified from the ethanolic extract of the bivalve digestive glands by ul-trafiltration and Bio-Gel P-2 column chromatography. TLC, cellulose acetate membrane electro-phoresis and HPLC analyses demonstrated that the toxin consisted almost exclusively of gonyau-toxins 1-4, along with trace amounts of saxitoxins. It was concluded from these results that the causative agent of the above food poisoning was nothing else than PSP.