Trumpet shell

Ivory Shell, Babylonia japonica Trumpet Shell, Charonia sauliae... 

Poisoning due to the digestive gland of a big gastropod trumpet shell Charonia sauliae)... 

In December 1979, a 41-year-old man ate a boiled digestive gland ( 60 g) of boshubora or trumpet shell (C. sauliae) that he had caught in the Shimizu Sea. Thirty minutes after ingestion, he was immediately hospitalized and received artificial respiration. Although he remained unconscious for 2 days, he recovered fully in 5 days. 

Noguchi et al (1982) first identified TTX in a starfish Astropecten polyacanthus, suggesting that this species is involved in intoxication mechanism in the TTX-bearing trumpet shell C. sauliae. Subsequently, two starfish... 

Trumpet shells can become highly intoxicated by ingesting toxic starfish (Noguchi et al, 1982). 

Noguchi, T., Narita, H., Maruyama, J., and Hashimoto, K. 1982. Tetrodotoxin in the starfish Astropecten polyacarUhus, in association with toxification of a trumpet shell boshubora Charonia sauliae. Nippon Suisan Gakkaishi 48, 1173-1177. 

Rodriguez p, Alfonso A, Vale C, Alfonso C, Vale P, Tellez A, et al. First toxicity report of tetrodotoxin and 5,6,11-trideoxyTTX in the trumpet shell Charonia lampas lampas in Europe. Anal Chem 2008 80 5622-9. 

Narita, H., T. Noguchi, J. Maruyama, Y. Ueda, K. Hashimoto, Y. Watanabe, and K. Hida Occurrence of Tetrodotoxin in a Trumpet Shell, Boshubora Cha-ronia sauliae. Bull. Japan. Soc. Sci. Fish. 47, 935 (1981). 

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