| Abstract | Poisoning incidents caused by eating snails Nassarius spp. were reported frequently in the last several years in China. Toxins involved in the poisoning incidents were suspected to be paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs) produced by toxic algal blooms in adjacent sea areas, since the symptoms of the patients closely resembled those caused by PSTs. However, tetrodotoxin was also reported previously in some snail samples. To elucidate the toxins responsible for the poisoning incident, snail samples collected from Fujian Province and Jiangsu Province in 2002 and 2003, resp., were analyzed with hydrophilic interaction liq. chromatog. coupled with mass spectrometry detector (HILIC-MS). High contents of tetrodotoxin (TTX) and its isomers and derivs., including 4-epiTTX, trideoxyTTX, anhydroTTX, deoxyTTX, oxoTTX, were detected in snail samples. The TTX contents in the snail samples collected from Fujian Province and Jiangsu Province were 44.6 μg/g and 129 μg/g, calibrated with TTX std. TTX and its derivs., rather than PSTs, were responsible for the two poisoning incidents in Fujian Province and Jiangsu Province. The closely resemblance of toxin profile between the two snail samples from Fujiang Province and Jiangsu Province suggested that they might have similar toxin sources. However, the origin of TTX and its derivs. in the snails still need more detailed investigation and research. |
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