Liquid chromatographic determination of domoic acid in shellfish products using the paralytic shellfish poison extraction procedure of the association of official analytical chemists.

Domoic acid, the recently discovered toxic substance found in contaminated mussels from an area in eastern Prince Edward Island (Canada) was extracted from mussel tissue using the procedure of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists for paralytic shellfish poisons. This involved a 5-min boiling of the sample with 0.1 M hydrochloric acid then cooling and centrifuging. An aliquot of the supernatant was diluted ten to one-hundred times with water, filtered and analysed by reversed-phase liquid chromatography with a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile-water (12:88) at pH 2.5 and an absorption wavelength of 242 nm. The detection limit was about 0.5 mg/kg domoic acid in seafood samples. The technique was successfully applied to a variety of commercially purchased shellfish and shellfish products.