ABSTRACT
A rapid biochemical method was discussed in order to detect low concentration of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) in sea food. The mice were injected with PSP extract of bivalves (1 and 0.2 microg/kg respectively, as STX equivalents) purchased from seafood market. ACh, AChE, NO and NOS in blood were studied at 15, 60, 120 min respectively. The results showed that at low dose (0.2 microg/kg) and 15 min, only the contents of ACh changed significantly compared with control group (p < 0.05), which was (141.2 +/- 14.8) microg/mg, while the contents of NO and the activities of NOS changed until 120 min, compared to control group (p < 0.05) ,which were (68.7 +/- 3.8) micromol/g and (40.1 +/- 4.9) U/mg respectively. At high dose the contents of ACh changed at all three time point. It can be suggested that the contents of ACh is the only one of four indexes which can response to PSP at low dose in an early stage (15 min) and may be selected as a biochemical index for rapid detection of PSP.