A comparison of the biological effects of paralytic shellfish poisons from clam, mussel and dinoflagellate

Saxitoxin, the paralytic shellfish poison from the clam Saxidomus giganteus, has been tested on mice, frog sciatic nerves, filaments from the rat cauda equina and the frog sartorius muscle. The effects on all of these preparations were indistinguishable from the effects of paralytic shellfish poisons purified from the mussel Mytilus californianus and the plankton dinoflagellate Gonyaulax catenella. The results of the experiments support the hypothesis that the poisons from all three sources are identical.