Use of immunoaffinity columns for clean-up of diarrhetic toxins (okadaic acid and dinophysistoxins) extracts from shellfish prior to their analysis by HPLC/fluorimetry.

Diarrhetic Shellfish Poisoning (DSP) is a severe gastro-intestinal disease caused by consumption of seafood contaminated by microalgal toxins, mainly okadaic acid (OA) and structurally related toxins, dinophysistoxins (DTXs). Regulatory monitoring is generally based on rodent bioassays which, however, present some technical and ethical disadvantages. The most promising technique of analysis of these toxins involves an HPLC separation with spectrofluorimetric detection after derivatization of the toxins with a fluorescent reagent.

Procedures for destruction of patulin in laboratory wastes.

Patulin is immunosuppressive and there is limited evidence of its carcinogenicity in experimental animals. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) initiated a programme for the development of degradation techniques for the commonly investigated mycotoxins. As a part of this programme, the following techniques were tested for the degradation of patulin: treatment with ammonia, treatment with ascorbic acid, and treatment with potassium permanganate in acidic or in alkaline conditions.

Use of immunoaffinity chromatography as a purification step for the determination of aflatoxin M1 in cheeses.

A method using immunoaffinity as a purification step for the determination of aflatoxin M1 in cheese is described. A simple solvent extraction with dichloromethane followed by a washing step with N-hexane gives a prepurified extract. A comparison between two ways of aflatoxin M1 purification, by solid-phase extraction clean-up and by immunoaffinity, was carried out.

Cooked mussels contaminated by Dinophysis sp.: a source of okadaic acid.

A method was developed for fractionation and isolation of toxic components present in extracts prepared from Dinophysis-contaminated mussels. The major toxin present in French mussels was identified as okadaic acid by its chromatographic properties and spectral data. Large amounts of mussel tissue (digestive glands and remaining meat) can be treated easily if they are cooked, or cooked and dried and are useful for isolating significant amounts of okadaic acid.