ABSTRACT
The increased harvesting of tropical marine resources has contributed to an increased incidence of human intoxication associated with fish consumption. Of these fish poisonings, ciguatera is arguably the most significant, both in terms of the number and the severity of poisoning episodes. The disease is associated with the consumption of many species of tropical and subtropical fishes from the Indo-Pacific Oceans and Caribbean Sea that have become contaminated by ciguatoxins which arise from blooms of certain strains of the benthic dinoflagellate Gambierdiscus toxicus. Environmental degradation may play a role in the increased incidence of ciguatera, although the precise factors involved remain elusive (1). The role played by other marine toxins in ciguatera, including other toxins produced by benthic dinoflagellates, has not been demonstrated, although mild cases of paly toxin poisoning may be mistaken for ciguatera (1). Over the last decade there have been rapid advances in our knowledge of the precise chemical and pharmacological properties of the toxins which contribute to the different forms of fish poisoning, especially those toxins involved in ciguatera.
