Fish and seafood qualitative analysis using anti-histamine polyclonal antibodies

This paper had the objective to produce polyclonal antibodies against histamine, which is a biogenic amine produced by the histidin aminoacid decarboxilation. The qualitative analysis of histamine in commercialized fish and seafood is very important for human health, once the histamine presence is followed by cadaverine, spermidine and putrescine, all produced during the post-mortem process. Polyclonal antibodies were raised against histamine and used in PTA-ELISA tests ('pescada', cat fish, sardines, salmon, 'manjuba', tilapia fillets) and for seafood (shrimp and common squid) during storage process. The antibodies showed sensibility up to 1 ng of histamine per gram of samples. Histamine appears as peaks during the 50 hours of analysis, for the fish and seafood samples, maintained on the top of crushed ice. Bacterial growth was also determined, being identified 14 species transforming aminoacids on the samples surface during the process of analysis. ELISA showed to be an efficient and sensible test for the histamine presence.