Persistence of malachite green and leucomalachite green in perch (Lateolabrax japonicus)

The persistence of malachite green (MG), and its metabolite leucomalachite green (LMG), in fish tissues is still unclear, leading to many trade disputes. In this research, we established and evaluated an HPLC method that could detect MG and LMG simultaneously, and then investigated the persistence of these two toxins in the tissues of juvenile perch (Lateolabrax japonicus) post sub-chronic MG exposure at 1.0 mg/L. Exposure lasted for 2 h everyday and was repeated six times. The perch were then placed in MG-free seawater for 100 d to eliminate the toxins. Results show that MG accumulated in the tissues, including the gills, liver, muscle, blood and viscera, and then was metabolized rapidly to LMG. The concentrations of these two toxins increased significantly with the accumulation process. In general, the highest concentrations of MG and LMG in all tissue exceeded 1 000 μg/kg, except for MG in the muscle. The order of accumulation levels (highest to lowest) of MG was gill>blood>liver>viscera>muscle, while that of LMG was liver>blood>gill>viscera>muscle. High levels of MG or LMG could persist for several hours but decreased rapidly during the elimination process. The concentration of LMG was much higher than that of MG during the experiment, especially in the gill, liver and blood. Therefore, the three tissues play important roles in toxin accumulation, biotransformation, and elimination. Although the MG and LMG concentrations in muscle were much lower than in other tissues, the content still exceeded the European minimum required performance limit (MRPL), even after 2 400 h (100 d) of elimination. This demonstrates that it is extremely difficult to eliminate MG and LMG from tissues of perch, and therefore use of these toxins is of concern to public health.