Phyllobates bicolor

The batrachotoxins were the first class of unique alkaloids to be characterized from skin extracts of frogs of the family Dendrobatidae (see ref. 23 for a review of amphibian alkaloids). Batrachotoxin was detected in only five species of dendrobatid frogs and these frogs were then classified as the monophyletic genus Phyllobates, based in part on the presence of batrachotoxins (24). However, levels of batrachotoxins differ considerably, with the Colombian Phyllobates terribilis containing nearly 1 mg of batrachotoxins per frog, while the somewhat smaller Phyllobates bicolor and Phyllobates aurotaenia, also from the rain forests of the Pacific versant in Colombia, contain 10-fold lower skin levels (8). The two... 

The pseudophrynamines have not been detected elsewhere in Nature. In myobatrachid frogs of the genus Pseudophryne, they occur in varying amounts in all species examined (56). The pair of dimeric indole alkaloids, chimonanthine/calycanthine, have been detected in amphibians only in the dendrobatid frog Phyllobates terribilis and, tentatively, as a trace alkaloid in Phyllobates bicolor (14). 

Daly, J. W., B. Witkop, P. Bommer, and K. Biemann Batrachotoxin. The active principle of the Colombian arrow poison frog, Phyllobates bicolor. J. Amer. Chem. Soc. 87, 124—126 (1965). 

Marki, F., and B. Witkop The venom of the Colombian arrow poison frog Phyllobates bicolor. Experientia 19, 329—338 (1963). 

The above three alkaloids are found in the skins of dendrobatid frogs of the genus Phyllobates terribilis, P. aurotaenia, and P. bicolor, all of Colombia, and to a very minor extent in P. vittatus of Costa Rica and P. lugubris of Panama (28). 

Batrachotoxins. Highly poisonous "steroid alkaloids (see table) isolated from the skin of the Colombian frogs Phyllobates aurotaenia, P. terribilis, P. bicolor, P. vittatus, and P. lugubris. B. (as skin preparations) are used as arrow poisons. 

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