Palytoxins: biological and chemical determination.

Palytoxin (PLTX) is a marine polyether toxin with a very large and complex molecule that has both lipophilic and hydrophilic areas. It presents the longest continuous carbon atoms chain known to exist in a natural product second only to maitotoxin. This toxin was first isolated from Palythoa toxica and was subsequently reported in dinoflagellates of the genus Ostreopsis. Although PLTX has so far been associated with ciguateric fish poisoning (CFP), recent evidence suggests that PLTXs should be excluded from CFP toxins. NMR and LC-MS/MS techniques have enabled the isolation of 10-15 new analogues from dinoflagellates ever since their first discovery. Literature data on biological origin, poisonings and chemistry of certain naturally occurring PLTX analogues, commonly known as ostreocins, are detailed herein. This paper reviews all reported biological and chemical analysis methods to date for this group of compounds.