Detection of monofluoroacetate in Palicourea and Amorimia species
Highlights
► An HPLC–APCI–MS method was developed to quantify monofluoroacetate in plants. ► Monofluoroacetate was detected in several Amorimia species. ► Monofluoracetate was detected in Palicourea aeneofusca.
Introduction
Numerous plant species worldwide cause sudden death syndrome in livestock; a number of these species are suspected or known to contain the toxic organofluorine compound monofluoroacetate (MFA; Twigg et al., 1996). For example, Dichapetalum cymosum native to southern Africa (Marais, 1944); Acacia georginae, Oxylobium parviflorum, and Gastrolobium grandiflorum plants in Australia (Alpin et al., 1983); and Palicourea marcgravii (Oliveira, 1963; Moraes-Moreau et al., 1995) and Tanaecium bilabiatum (synonym Arrabidaea bilabiata; Krebs et al., 1994) in Brazil contain MFA and cause sudden death syndrome. Clinical signs associated with sudden death are loss of balance, ataxia, labored breathing, muscle tremors, and recumbency leading to death. Numerous other plant species in Brazil including some species traditionally assigned to Mascagnia, Pseudocalymma elegans, Fridericia japurensis (synonym Arrabidaea japurensis) and other Palicourea and Tanaecium species are reported to cause sudden death in livestock and are suspected to contain MFA due to the similarity of clinical signs; however, the presence of MFA has not been verified in these species (Tokarnia et al., 1990, 2000, 2002; Vasconcelos et al., 2008a; Riet-Correa et al., 2009).
Since the mid-part of the 20th century, poisoning of livestock by species then assigned to Mascagnia or “tingui” was reported throughout the northeast and southeast regions of Brazil (Tokarnia et al., 1990, 2000, 2002). Five Mascagnia species, Mascagnia elegans, Mascagnia exotropica, Mascagnia pubiflora, Mascagnia rigida, and Mascagnia aff. rigida, are reported to cause sudden death in livestock (Tokarnia et al., 1990, 2000, 2002; Riet-Correa et al., 2009). M. rigida is one of the most important poisonous plants of Brazil because of its widespread distribution throughout the nine states of northeastern Brazil and the southeastern region in the states of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo (Tokarnia et al., 2000). Recent taxonomic research using morphological and molecular studies of Mascagnia species led to the description of a new genus, Amorimia, to which four of the Mascagnia species (exotropica, pubiflora, rigida, and aff. rigida) suspected of causing sudden death syndrome have been assigned (Anderson, 2006; Davis and Anderson, 2010). Amorimia species are distinguished from Mascagnia species by leaf glands on the abaxial surface, abaxially hairy petals, large gland-bearing bracts, straight erect styles, and fruit (samara) morphology (Anderson, 2006).
The objective of this research was to develop a method to detect and quantify MFA in taxa suspected of causing sudden death in livestock. P. marcgravii was verified to contain MFA as previously reported. Amorimia species, M. elegans (under its earlier synonym, Mascagnia divaricata), and Palicourea aeneofusca suspected of causing sudden death syndrome were investigated for the presence of MFA. Additionally, MFA concentrations were compared between P. marcgravii and other species suspected of causing sudden death.
Section snippets
Plant material
Collections of P. marcgravii were made in the states of Goiás (S16°28.82′ W49°21.40′; elevation 800 m) and São Paulo, Brazil (S21°57.12′ W47°27.80′; elevation 628 m). Mature leaves from 10 plants were collected from the Goiás location, while leaves from 10 plants were separated into mature leaves and immature developing leaves at the São Paulo location. P. aeneofusca was collected 90 km inland from the coastal area of Paraíba (S6°57.51′ W35°42.92′; elevation 589 m). Mature leaves from 10 plants
Results and discussion
There have been attempts to verify the presence of MFA in some Brazilian plants causing sudden death (Cunha, 2008; Peixoto et al., 2011), but these indirect methods were neither conclusive nor quantitative (Riet-Correa et al., 2009). In this study, an HPLC–APCI–MS method for the analysis of MFA in complex food matrices was modified for the analysis of MFA in plant samples (Noonan et al., 2007). The new method was specific for MFA and was linear over 2 orders of magnitude (0.078 μg/mL–10.0 μg/mL
Acknowledgments
We thank Dr. Carlos Tokarnia for kindly sending plant samples to assist in this work. We also thank J. Charles Hailes, Kermit Price and Jessie Roper for technical assistance.
References (27)
- et al.
Qualitative and quantitative determination of fluoroacetic acid in Arrabidaea bilabiata and Palicourea marcgravii by F-19-NMR spectroscopy
Toxicon
(1994) - et al.
Rapid quantitative and qualitative confirmatory method for the determination of monofluoroacetic acid in foods by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry
J. Chromatogr. A
(2007) - et al.
Poisoning by Amorimia (Mascagnia) sepium in sheep in northern Brazil
Toxicon
(2011) - et al.
Poisonous plants affecting livestock in Brazil
Toxicon
(2002) - et al.
The distribution and ecology of the toxic species of Gastrolobium and Oxylobium in South-western Australia in relation to the tolerance of native animals to fluoroacetate
Toxicon
(1983) Eight segregates from the neotropical genus Mascagnia (Malpighiaceae)
Novon
(2006)- et al.
Malpighiaceae
(2006) - et al.
The biogeographical distribution of Duncecap larkspur (Delphinium occidentale) chemotypes and their potential toxicity
J. Chem. Ecol.
(2009) - et al.
The alkaloid profiles of Lupinus sulphureus
J. Agric. Food Chem.
(2009) - et al.
Influence of phenological stage on swainsonine and endophyte concentrations in Oxytropis sericea
J. Chem. Ecol.
(2012)
A complete generic phylogeny of Malpighiaceae inferred from nucleotide sequence data and morphology
Amer. J. Bot.
Sudden death in cattle by Mascagnia sp (Malpighiaceae) in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil
Pesq. Vet. Bras
Cited by (70)
Nutrient-use efficiency
2023, Marschner's Mineral Nutrition of PlantsFluoroacetate
2020, Handbook of Toxicology of Chemical Warfare AgentsEvaluation of the resistance of Nellore, Curraleiro Pe-duro and Pantaneiro cattle breeds by experimental intoxication of Palicourea marcgravii
2019, ToxiconCitation Excerpt :The Palicourea marcgravii provided to the animals was collected in the state of Goiás (S16°28.82′ W49°21.40′, elevation 800 m) and identifications of Palicourea spp. were verified by botanists and deposited in the herbarium of the Department of Morphology, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Goiás (UFG) (voucher #47851). The monofluoracetate (MFA) concentration in dried leaves of P. marcgravii were analyzed at the Poisonous Plant Research Laboratory (Logan, UT, USA) (Lee et al., 2012) and the value was 0.03%. Experimental design was conducted in three periods: adaptation (phase 1: 14 days), post intoxication (phase 2: 24 h) and evaluation (phase 3: 4 days).