Fractionation and purification of some muscular and visceral ciguatoxins extracted from caribbean fish

Abstract

1. 1. Ciguatoxins (CTX) were extracted from flesh and viscera of seven large roving predatory fishes: Caranx bartholomaei, Caranx latus, Seriola dumerili, Alectis crinitus, Scomberomorus cavalla, Sphyraena barracuda and Gymnothorax funebris. 2. 2. Generally each extract consisted of close-related CTX which were separated according to their polarity by Florisil column chromatography into a fast-acting CTX contianing group and a slow-acting CTX containing group. 3. 3. The shortest survival time of mice ( t 6) was low for the former group (<10 min) and high for the latter (≥ 29 min). 4. 4. The level of purity had no influence on the range of t 8 values. The presence of these two CTX groups in different extracts did not result from experimental conditions. 5. 5. Attempts to convert fast-acting CTX to slow-acting CTX and vice-versa were negative. G. funebris and S. barracuda had an especially high content of unstable fast-acting CTX. 6. 6. Purification of the slow-acting CTX was achieved by fast elution chromatography and Sephadex LH20 gel filtration. 7. 7. The t 5 values of these CTX were identical for five species (40 44 min) but not for S. barracuda (29–32 min). 8. 8. Thus ciguatoxic extracts from Caribbean fish were composed of several close-related CTX.