Saint Ignatius bean

The toxic and medicinal effects of strychnine have been well-known since the times of ancient China and India. The inhabitants of these countries had ancestral knowledge of the species nux vomica and Saint Ignatius bean. The species S. nux vomica is a tree of native Indonesia that attains a height of 12 m. The tree has a crooked, short, thick trunk and the wood is close-grained and very durable. The fruit has an orange color and is approximately the size of a large apple with a hard rind and contains five seeds that are covered with a soft wool-like substance. The ripe seed looks like flattened... 

Strychnine was first discovered by French chemists Joseph Bienaime Caventou and Pierre-Joseph Pelletier in 1818 in the Saint-Ignatius bean, and it possesses highly toxic properties as a result of its interaction with the glycine receptor site, hence, blocking the flux of chloride ions and... 

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