Occurrence of Tetrodotoxin in a Trumpet Shell, “Boshubora” Charonia sauliae

Abstract

A paralytic poisoning occurred in December, 1979, due to ingestion of a trumpet shell, “boshubora” Charonia sauliae which was caught off Miho, Shizuoka Prefecture. The toxicity study showed that most of the boshubora specimens collected around there were toxic at the digestive gland. The boshubora toxin (abbreviated as BST below) was purified from the digestive gland by a method which consisted of the treatment with activated charcoal, chromatography on Amberlite IRC-50 and CM-Sephadex C-25, and finally crystallization. The recrystallized toxin showed a toxicity of 3,700 MU/mg. Thin-layer chromatographic and electrophoretic results for BST were the same as those for tetrodotoxin (TTX) analyzed for reference. Furthermore, both toxins coincided well in their IR and NM Rspectra, the mass spectra of the C9-base-trimethylsily] derivative, and the dose-death time curves. Based on these results, BST was identified as TTX. © 1981, The Japanese Society of Fisheries Science. All rights reserved.