STUDY OF THE STABILITY OF GONYAUTOXINS IN ACIDIC SOLUTION

The gonyautoxin group is the major component in mussels contaminated b y paralytic shellfish poison in red tides from the west coast of Spain . This study describes the stability of the gonyautoxins stored at dif feren temperatures in acidic solution. The toxins were extracted from contaminated mussels Mytilus galloprovincialis Lmk and purified throug h BioRex 70. The stability of the gonyautoxins was analyzed by high-pe rformance liquid chromatography. The experiments demonstrated that gon yautoxin 6 is the most unstable toxin in any condition and at temperat ures lower than 4-degrees-C there is no important change in the other toxins in the first year of storage. At temperatures higher than 0-deg rees-C, gonyautoxin 2 and gonyautoxin 3 were the most stable of the go nyautoxin group. The results indicate that, at least without further m anipulation, these toxins can be safely stored in acidic conditions at low temperatures.