アサリエキス中のウナギ誘引物質-I

Abstract

From our observation that the extracts of short-necked clam, Tapes japonica, evoke exploratory and feeding response in eels, Anguilla japonica, attempts were made to locate the active components. Various kinds of test solution were prepared by mixing the authentic reagents so as to reproduce partly or wholly the natural extracts (Table 1) and examined on their activity. As shown in Table 2, amino acids are responsible for the activity, while the other constituents, such as nucleotides, their related compounds, organic acids and quaternary ammonium bases, make little contribution, if any. When tested individually, each of 18 amino acids, however, is not effective at the concentration tested. These results suggest that the stimulating activity of the extracts is attributable mainly to the synergistic or additive interaction between amino acids. Eels, which had been kept respectively on the beef liver, aquatic oligochaete worms, Tubifex spp., and frozen saury for 4 weeks, did not show any difference in response to test solutions.