Occurrence of tetrodotoxin-related substances in the nontoxic puffer Takifugu xanthopterus

摘要

Instead of tetrodotoxin, significant amounts of tetrodotoxin-related substances with no mouse lethality were detected in the nontoxic liver specimen of puffer fish, Takifugu xanthopterus. The tetrodotoxin-related substances, which were demonstrated to be tetrodotoxin derivatives by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis, were similar to tetrodonic acid in HPLC but distinguishable from it in electrophoresis, Our results suggest that nontoxic puffer fish contains nontoxic tetrodotoxin derivatives as precursors or metabolites of tetrodotoxin. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd; All rights reserved. [References: 13]