Phyllobates bicolor Batrachotoxins

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... 

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). 

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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