Extraction of paralytic shellfish poisons from whole oyster, whole short-necked clam, and scallop digestive gland.

Abstract

Repeated acidic methanol extractions of paralytic shellfish poison-containing oysters and short-nacked clams followed by a hot HCl extraction resulted in obtaining 2-3 times the toxicity realized by the standard mouse bioassay procedure. This effect was not observed with repeated acidic ethanol extractions nor with scallop digestive glands. Secondary methanol extractions of residues from the evaporation of the primary alcoholic extracts of shellflsh generally gave poor recoveries of activity and fraction with lower specifid activities, but extraction of the residues from the hot HCl extracts generally gave good recoveries and an enhancement of specific activity.