Arrow poisons

Once used as an arrow poison It IS hundreds of times more powerful than morphine in relieving pain It is too toxic to be used as a drug however)... 

Many other bisben2ylisoquinoliae alkaloids, such as tetrandriae (80), from Cjcleapeltata Hook., are also known. Compound (80), for example, although it causes hypotension and hepatotoxicity ia mammals, ia other tests, possessed enough anticancer activity to be considered for preclioical evaluation (55). The arrow poison tubocurare prepared from Chondrendendron spp. also contains the bisben2yhsoquiQoline alkaloid tubocurariae (9). 

This tree occurs widely distributed in Africa and the bark is known under a variety of native names, e.g., sassy bark in West Africa, where it was formerly used as an ordeal poison in East and Central Africa it is said to have been an ingredient in arrow-poisons. The bark was first examined by GaUois and Hardy who isolated a toxic alkaloid, erythrophleine, which- was examined by Hamack and Zabrocki and later by Hamack, whose results differed from those of Gallois and Hardy and were generally confirmed by Power and Salway. Recently interest... 

Curare is a generic term for various South American arrow poisons. Curare has been used for centuries by the Indians along the Amazon and Orinoco rivers for immobilizing and paralyzing wild animals used for food. Preparations of curare are derived from Strychnos species, which contain quaternary neuromuscular alkaloids like tubocurarine. Tubocurarine is a potent antagonist at the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. 

Neurotoxin obtained from the larva of leaf-cutting beetles (Diamphidia nigro-ornata pupae) that is used by bushmen of Southern Africa as an arrow poison. It blocks neuromuscular function and also attacks the heart muscles (cardiotoxic) and is destructive to red blood cells (hemolytic). Dried poison is stable for over a year. 

Harpe, Jon de la, E. Reich, Karl A. Reich, and Eugene B. Dowdle. "Diamphotoxin The Arrow Poison of the IKung Bushmen." The Journal of Biological Chemistry 258 (1983) 11924-931. 

Bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloids are dimeric benzyltetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloids that are known for their pharmacological activities. A well-described example is the muscle relaxant (+)-tubocurarine, which in crude form serves as an arrow poison for South American Indian tribes. In the biosynthesis of this broad class of dimeric alkaloids, it has been postulated that the mechanism of phenol coupling proceeds by generation of phenolate radicals followed by radical pairing to form either an inter- or intramolecular C - O or C - C bond. Enzyme studies on the formation of bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloids indicated that a cytochrome P-450-dependent oxidase catalyzes C - O bound formation in the biosynthesis of berbamunine in Berberis cell suspension culture.15 This enzyme, berbamunine synthase (CYP80A1), is one of the few cytochromes P-450 that can be purified to... 

Tabernaemontana plants are mentioned in ethnobotanical literature for then-broad use in traditional medicine or for nonmedicinal purposes, mainly as sources of wood, rubber, arrow poison, birdlime, and others (9). Ethnophar-macological data are available for about 70 species, some of them not yet chemically investigated. 

Another interesting alkaloid is tubocurarine chloride (14), with a bisbenzyliso-quinoline structure. It is the active principle of tubocurare, an arrow poison used by Indians in South America and medicinally used as a muscle relaxant. However, the source, the leaves of the tropical rainwood liane Chondodenron tomento-sum, is not easily accessible and the compound exhibits unwanted side-effects. Investigations showed that the basic structure can be replaced by an appropriate steroid skeleton with two nitrogen substituents at the right distance (see next section). 

There is a long history of the use of Aconitum, Delphinium and Consolida species as the source of poisons and medicinals [1]. These three genera in Ranunculaceae family yield diterpenoid and norditerpenoid alkaloids. The name Delphinium derived from dolphine-delphine due to the shape of their flower buds [2]. Aconitum has an evil reputation from the antiquity [3]. The plant was used as poison in old Greece, also in north-west Pacific the natives used it to poison the whales and also as arrow poison. In England in the ancient times the plant was used against wolves, boars, tigers as well as against rodents, and it was also a homicide material [4]. 

Claude Bernard s early discovery (1856) that curare, the South American arrow poison (woorari), blocked muscle contraction elicited by stimulation of motor neurons, but not that elicited by direct stimulation of the muscle, provided the first demonstration that drugs could be used to study, what we now know are, nAChR-regulated functions. Bernard s early experiment served as the model for Langley s demonstration that the actions of nicotine on skeletal muscle could be blocked by pretreatment with curare (Langley 1880, 1907) and mimicked by pituri, the active... 

The production of a quaternary ammonium salt from a tertiary amine and an alkyl halide forms the synthetic route to decamethonium, the first of a range of synthetic muscle relaxants having an action like the natural materials found in the arrow-poison curare. Decamethonium is actually a di-quaternary salt, as are more modem analogues, such as suxamethonium. Suxamethonium superseded decamethonium as a drug because it has a shorter and more desirable duration of action in the body. This arise because it can be metabolized by ester-hydrolysing enzymes (esterases) (see also Box 6.9). 

Curare is the term for plant-derived arrow poisons of South American natives. 

Substances that block the serine residue in the active center of acetylcholinesterase [2j—e.g., the neurotoxin E605 and other organophosphates—prevent ACh degradation and thus cause prolonged stimulation of the postsynaptic cell. This impairs nerve conduction and muscle contraction. Curare, a paralyzing arrow-poison used by South American Indians, competitively inhibits binding of ACh to its receptor. 

Neuwinger, H. D. 1998. Alkaloids in arrow poisons. In Alkaloids. Biochemistry, Ecology, and Medicinal Applications (Roberts, M. F. and Wink, M., eds), pp. 45-84. New York - London Academic Press. 

Calotropis procera Dryand., Asclepiadaceae, Ang. frcan tropical Africa traditicxially used as an arrow poison... 

During the 16th century, European explorers found that natives in the Amazon Basin of South America were using curare, an arrow poison that produced skeletal muscle paralysis, to kill animals. The active compound, d-tubocurarine, and its modern synthetic derivatives, have had a major influence on the practice of anesthesia and surgery and have proved useful in understanding the basic mechanisms involved in neuromuscular transmission. 

Latex from the wood of Antiaris toxicaria, a toxic Indonesian plant, has been used for arrow poison. From the root bark of the plants, antiarones A (17) and B (18) [39], the first examples of isoprenylated aurone derivative, have been isolated along with the unique dihydrochalcone derivatives, antiarones J (19) and K (20) [40], Fig. (2). These compounds (19 and 20) are biogenetically considered to be formed... 

It has been used for millenia as a potent arrow poison. 

Uses arrow poison of South American Indians of the Amazon... 

D-tubocurarine or curare is a natural alkaloid used by South American natives as an arrow poison. Since it paralyzed the extremities first, the... 

Bufotenine can also be exuded from the skin of the cane toad (hence the prefix bufo-). This is a red or green toad which was mistakenly purported to be the object of "toad licking" in order to become intoxicated. The reports of such activity were highly exaggerated. Licking the skin of the cane toad has made the lickers extremely ill. In fact in South America indigenous tribes used the material as an arrow poison. 

The steroid derivative ouabain (pronounced wah -bane from waa bayyo, Somali for arrow poison ) is a potent and specific inhibitor of the Na+K+ ATPase. Oubain binds preferentially to the form of the enzyme that is open to the extracellular side, locking in two Na+ ions and preventing the changes of conformation necessary to ion transport. Another very potent toxin, palytoxin (produced by a coral on the Hawaiian shoreline), also targets the Na+K+ ATPase, but it binds... 

This substance has been used as an arrow poison, and powdered fruit from the plant is sometimes used as a rat poison (hence the plant s common name, ratsbane). Why is this substance so toxic (Hint Review Chapter 16, Problem 13.)... 

Batrochotoxin. Toxin extracted from skin of Columbian arrow poison frog. Effect via irreversible increase in permeability of membranes to Naf ions... 

The curare alkaloids, which are constituents of arrow poisons used by South American Indians, are complex bases which usually contain one or more quaternary centers. They act at the neuromuscular junction, preventing muscles from responding to nerve impulses or to acetylcholine, and they are used to secure muscular relaxation during surgery. 

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