First report of saxitoxin in octopi

• DOI: 10.1016/j.toxicon.2004.08.015
• Publication Date: 2004-10-21T15:29:22Z
• Authors: Alison Robertson; David Stirling; Cedric Robillot; Lyndon Llewellyn; Andrew Negri
• Keywords: Saxitoxin; Tetrodotoxin; Paralytic shellfish poisoning; Shellfish Poisoning; octopus (software)

We report for the first time, the presence of saxitoxin (STX) in a common cephalopod, Octopus (Abdopus) sp. 5, collected from Cooke Point on the northern coastline of Western Australia. Sodium channel and saxiphilin based radio-receptor assays detected saxitoxin-like binding in octopi extracts. Further analysis by liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection (LC-FLD) identified STX as the major contributing toxin in these samples. The presence of STX was confirmed by LC-mass spectrometry and comparison of fragmentation patterns with an authentic STX standard. LC-FLD quantitation and conversion of the Octopus sp. 5 extracts revealed toxin concentrations as high as 246 microg STX/100g tissue, more than three times the US, European and Australian regulatory limit for human consumption of shellfish of 80 microg STX/100g tissue. There was no evidence of tetrodotoxin or other paralytic shellfish toxin derivatives. This level and distribution of STX in octopi poses a potential public health risk, particularly when routine toxin screening of wild catch is not regulated.