Word: tetrodotoxin
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Dates: during 1965-1965
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...fugu has drawn additional attention by its long-defiant challenge to the chemists' skill. Its poison, tetrodotoxin, has proved almost impossible to isolate or identify. But Japanese science has finally turned the trick. For establishing the molecular structure of tetrodotoxin, Professors Kyosuke Tsuda of Tokyo University, Yoshimasa Hirata of Nagoya University, Isamu Nitta of Kwansei Gakuin University, and Akira Yokoo of Okayama University have just won the prestigious Asahi prize...
...Antidote. Cases of tetrodotoxin poisoning do not occur every day, but only too often the chopsticks drop from a victim's fingers. His breathing becomes difficult; his heart action falters...
...power, the poison exists in very small amounts, and its molecule is so delicate that it falls to pieces when chemically molested. Generations of chemists managed to make stronger and stronger concentrations of tetrodotoxin, and in 1949 Professor Akira Yokoo isolated the poison in pure crystalline form. But still the molecular formula defied investigation...
Japanese chemists are also hard at work on a more practical chore: finding an antidote for tetrodotoxin poisoning. But success may not be applauded by risk-loving gourmets. When a bottle of antitoxin is standing in every restaurant, the dangerous fugu will have become just another fish; fugu roulette will have lost its excitement, and something unique will have vanished from Japanese culture...