INTOXICATIONS THROUGH MARINE-ALGAE TOXINS - A REVIEW

During the last couple of years the accumulation of marine algal toxin s in shellfish and other marine organisms has become increasingly impo rtant. This is mainly due to the detection of a number of so far unkno wn, highly potent algal toxins and the occurrence of new types of shel lfish poisoning in humans. Additionally, algal blooms of toxic as well as nontoxic species have become more frequent. In this paper the main types of intoxications through marine algal toxins (paralytic shellfi sh poisoning, diarrhetic shellfish poisoning, amnesic shellfish poison ing, neurologic shellfish poisoning and ciguatera) are summarized with respect to occurrence of the toxins, affected foodstuff, and methods of detection.