US EPA

1579961 

Technical Report 

Identification of okadaic acid as a toxic component of a marine dinoflagellate Prorocentrum lima 

Murakami, Y; Oshima, Y; Yasumoto, T 

1982 

Health and Safety Executive 

HEEP/83/02573 

48 

1 

69-72 

HEEP COPYRIGHT: BIOL ABS. (Whether the ether soluble toxins of P. lima resembled ciguatoxin structurally was investigated.) Two diethyl ether soluble toxin (PL toxin-1,2) and a 1-butanol soluble toxin (PL toxin-3) were isolated from a benthic marine dinoflagellate, P. lima. The major toxic component, PL toxin-2, was purified by several steps of column chromatography to yield colorless crystals: mp (melting point) 1566%% Physical and chemical data pointed to a molecular formula, C44H68O13, having 4 OH, 1 carboxyl, 7 ether linkages, 3 olefins and 5 methyls in the molecule. A further examination of its properties and a comparison with an authentic specimen established that PL toxin-2 was identical with okadaic acid, recently isolated as a cytotoxic component of 2 sponges, Halichodria okadai and H. melanodocia.