The acute toxicity of caulerpin and caulerpicin isolated from the green algae Caulerpa was studied in the mouse. The lack of toxicity of these compounds indicates that they are not responsible for the toxic symptoms observed after ingestion of these algae. On the other hand, comparative studies of various Cazilerpa scalpelliformis extracts show that the aqueous fraction is poisonous. Chemical and pharmacological characterisation of the toxic substances in this extract provides a new approach to the investigation of the mechanism of Caulerpa species toxicity.
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Vidal et al. (1984) studied this question.