STUDY OF THE STABILITY OF GONYAUTOXINS IN ACIDIC SOLUTION

The gonyautoxin group is the major component in mussels contaminated by paralytic shellfish poison in red tides from the west coast of Spain. This study describes the stability of the gonyautoxins stored at differen temperatures in acidic solution. The toxins were extracted from contaminated mussels Mytilus galloprovincialis Lmk and purified through BioRex 70. The stability of the gonyautoxins was analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography. The experiments demonstrated that gonyautoxin 6 is the most unstable toxin in any condition and at temperatures 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-degrees-C, gonyautoxin 2 and gonyautoxin 3 were the most stable of the gonyautoxin group. The results indicate that, at least without further manipulation, these toxins can be safely stored in acidic conditions at low temperatures.