title: Isolation and characterization of sodium 2-fluoroacetate from Mascagnia rigida using chromatography and infrared spectroscopy.
abstract: Sodium monofluoroacetate was first identified in Dichapetalum cymosum, a South African plant that can cause livestock poisoning and death. After, several other plants also showed to contain this toxin, which leads to the "sudden death". Mascagnia rigida, a well identified poisonous plant, commonly found in northeast of Brazil also cause sudden death in cattle, which shows clinical signs similar to those produced by the ingestion of plants that contain monofluoroacetate. Our aim was to identify the toxic compound present in the aqueous extract of M. rigida. For this purpose, the dried and milled plant was extracted; the extract was lyophilized and submitted to successive chromatographic process, until the desired purity of the active compound was achieved. The study of this material by planar chromatography and by infrared spectrometry indicated that the toxin can be a mixture of mono, di and trifluoroacetate.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, University of São Paulo, Av. Prof. Dr. Orlando Marques de Paiva 87, 05508-270 SP, Brazil. lucascu@usp.br
authors.forename: Luciana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Castro da Cunha
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pípole
authors.forename: Luciana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Retz de Carvalho
authors.forename: João Henrique
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Ghilardi Lago
authors.forename: Silvana Lima
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Górniak
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic; D001938:Brazil; D002854:Chromatography, Paper; D002855:Chromatography, Thin Layer; D005463:Fluoroacetates / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D029581:Malpighiaceae / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000506:poisoning; D010575:Pesticides / Q000302:isolation & purification; D010939:Plant Poisoning / Q000209:etiology / Q000662:veterinary; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D014118:Toxins, Biological / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification*
chemical_list: D005463:Fluoroacetates; D010575:Pesticides; D014118:Toxins, Biological; C014815:fluoroacetic acid