OCCURRENCE OF PARALYTIC TOXIN IN TAIWANESE CRAB ATERGATOPSIS-GERMAINI

Paralytic toxicity was detected by paralytic shellfish poison bioassay for all 17 specimens of the xanthid crab A. germaini collected from n orthern Taiwan in November 1993. The average toxicity of crab specimen s was 3809 +/- 2591 mouse units (mean +/- S.D.). The toxin was partial ly purified from ethanolic extract of the crab by ultrafiltration and Bio-Gel P-2 column chromatography. Electrophoresis, TLC, HPLC, ultravi olet spectrum and GC-MS analyses indicated that the crab toxin was com posed of gonyautoxin 3 (50%), neosaxitoxin and saxitoxin (7%), a novel paralytic shellfish poison-like toxin (40%) and tetrodotoxin (3%). (C ) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.