Heart poison

Other Lethal Agents. There are a number of substances, many found in nature, which are known to be more toxic than nerve agents (6). None has been weaponized. Examples of these toxic natural products include shellfish poison, isolated from toxic clams puffer fish poison, isolated from the viscera of the puffer fish the active principle of curare "heart poisons" of the digitaUs type the active principle of the sea cucumber active principles of snake venom and the protein ricin, obtained from castor beans (See Castor oil). 

The toxic principle of D. cymosum has been isolated by Marais and proved to be potassium fluoroacetate.2 It is evident that this is indeed the heart poison referred to by Steyn in his vivid account given above. 

Rothschild, M., von Euw, J. and Reichstein, T. (1973). Cardiac glycosides (heart poisons) in the polka-dot moth Syntomeida epilais Walk. (Ctenuchidae Lep.) with some observations on the toxic qualities of Amata (= Syntomis) phegea (L.). Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series 183 227-247. 

Irritates the skin and respiratory tract. Large doses may produce kidney and liver damage.1 Avoid contact with eyes and skin vapor may cause headache, nausea, giddiness, and vomiting in contact with eyes, may cause conjunctivitis large doses taken by mouth act as a heart poison.3 TLV-TWA 5 ppm (16 mg/m3).8... 

For ingestion, if the victim is conscious and not convulsing one or two glasses of water should be given to dilute the chemical and a hospital or poison control center called immediately. Activated charcoal may be administered. It should be noted that large doses could act as a heart poison. 

The heart poisons or cardiotoxins are, in reality, general muscle poisons. However their effect on the muscle of the heart is by far the most important in terms of killing the snake s prey or attacker. These incredibly potent toxins bind to specific biochemical sites on the surface of muscle cells causing depolarisation. The muscle cell works in a manner akin to neurones in that it transmits information, to initiate a contraction, by exchanging + and - ions across its cell... 

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