Ciguatera fish poisoning and other seafood intoxication syndromes: A revisit and a review of the existing treatments employed in ciguatera fish poisoning

doi:10.1071/SP10001

Ciguatera fish poisoning and other seafood intoxication syndromes: A revisit and a review of the existing treatments employed in ciguatera fish poisoning

Shilpa Kumar-Roiné, Mariko Matsui, Serge Pauillac and Dominique Laurent

The South Pacific Journal of Natural and Applied Sciences 28(1) 1 - 26
Published: 10 February 2011

Abstract

Ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP) is acquired through consumption of tropical reef fishes, contaminated with potent neurotoxins, ciguatoxins (CTXs), produced by benthic dinoflagellate of the Gambierdiscus genus. Both spatially and temporally unpredictable, a tainted fish is impossible to differentiate from an untainted one by appearance, taste, texture or odour. Given the predominance of reef fish in the diet of insular countries, the risk of CFP is ever-present. In the Pacific where the incidence of CFP is the highest, the consequences on public health and socio-economy can be extremely severe. Multidisciplinary in nature, the present review revisits the phenomenon of CFP, covering certain of its aspects, notably the etiology, toxicology, ecotoxicology, pharmacology, pathology and the treatments administrated. These aspects of CFP have been reviewed in relation to other poisoning syndromes: tetrodotoxin poisoning and other dinoflagellates- or diatoms-associated intoxications such as paralytic (PSP), diarrhetic (DSP), neurotoxic (NSP), amnesic (ASP) and azaspiracid shellfish poisoning (AZP) and palytoxin poisoning.

Based on case reports and bibliographic accounts, a list inventorying the western medicines prescribed to patients suffering from CFP has been established. Within the last two decades, several of the herbal remedies have been evaluated for their efficiencies in in vivo and in a number of in vitro tests, which have also been reviewed herein.

Keywords: Seafood poisoning, marine toxins, ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP), paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP), diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP), neurotoxin shellfish poisoning (NSP), amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP), azaspiracid shellfish poisoning (AZP), tetrodotoxin (Fugu) poisoning, palytoxin poisoning, occidental medicine, traditional remedies.