Lethal maitotoxin

Maitotoxin is lethal in mice at a dose of 0.15pgkg body weight intraperitoneally. 

Maitotoxin (MTX), whose structure was first reported in 1993 by Murata et al. [21], has a molecular weight of 3422 Da. It is the largest nonbiopolymeric and most lethal nonpeptide natural product ... 

Maitotoxin, a molecule for which one of your authors maintains a certain affection, is extraordinarily lethal (for half the mice treated the lethal dose is only 50 ng/kg) and is one of the largest natural products known. In 1993, a group of Japanese chemists reported a variety of complex NMR studies that established the general structure, and in 1996, chemists at Harvard used much spectroscopy, along with organic synthe-... 

With a lethal dose (LD50) of 50ngkg , maitotoxin is currently the most potent nonprotein toxin. BotuUnum toxin is more toxic it is a protein with an LD50 of about 5 ngkg (see Chapter 11). 

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