Toxicity of Puffer in Taiwan.

Abstract

More than 600 specimens of twenty-five species of puffer were collected from adjacent waters of Taiwan from 1981 to 1989, and examined for anatomical distribution of toxicity by the mouse bioassay method. They exhibited a rather distinct variation depending upon species, individual, tissue, region, and season of catch. The species whose liver and/or ovary were highly toxic (< 1000 MU/g) were "kanafugu" Lagocephalus inermis, "dokusabafugu" L. lunaris, "takifugu" Fugu oblongus, "shimafugu" F. xanthopterus, "sansaifugu" F. flavidus, "komondamashi" F. alboplumbeus, and "shippofugu" Amblyrhynchotes hypselogenion. It was noteworthy that the skin of several species such as "sazanamifugu" Arothron hispidus and "sujimoyofugu" A. manilenis were toxic with the highest toxicity of 820 MU/g. "Shirosabafugu" L. wheeleri was nontoxic in most tissues except the ovary with the highest value of 330 MU/g, "Kurosabafugu" L. gloveri was found to be weakly toxic, with the highest toxicities of 42 and 64 MU/g for liver and intestine, respecitively.