[Determination of tetrodotoxin in fermentation broth of distiller's yeast by ion chromatography]

A method was developed for the quantitative analysis of tetrodotoxin (TTX) in fermentation broth of distiller's yeast by ion chromatography. After extraction with acetonitrile solution (containing 0.1% phosphoric acid) and purification with an ion-exchange column, the tetrodotoxin was separated by ion chromatography and detected by a ultraviolet-visible (UV-VIS) absorbance detector. The experimental results showed that the tetrodotoxin had a good linearity (r2 = 0.997) in the range of 10 - 100 mg/L and the detection limit (3 of signal-to-noise ratio) was 1.0 mg/L. The average recoveries were between 90% - 103% with a relative standard deviation lower than 4.9%. The analysis of real samples verified the reliability of this method and demonstrated that the ion chromatography can be used for the quantification detection of the tetrodotoxin. The degradation experiment results suggested that distiller's yeast had a remarkable effect on the tetrodotoxin degradation.