Upas tree

S, Tieute Lesch. (Java). Upas tree. Strychnine with traces of brucine (Pelletier and Caventou, Ann. Chim. Phys., 1824, [ii], 26, 44 van Boorsma, Bull. Inst. Bot. Buit., 1902, No. 14, 3, 7). 

Vlex euTopaeus, 118, 140 Ulexine (cytisine), 140, 142 Umbellatine, 329, 340, 345 Ungernia sewertzooii imgemine, 406 Upas tree, 554... 

Upas-baiim, m. upas tree, upas, -gift, n. upas poison, upas. 

The word strychnine , like arsenic , is in many people s minds, S5m-onymous with poisoning. This natural toxin, an alkaloid, became known as strychnine only in the nineteenth century, after it was isolated from the plant nux vomica in 1817. It had been used as a rat poison, and sometimes as a medicine, since the sixteenth century, and had thus been readily available for hundreds of years. It is also a constituent of the upas tree, the sap of which was used for executions in Malaya, as described earlier. (See also p. 155.)... 

Antiaris toxicaria Upas tree Antiarin A Javanese tree of the mulberry family, used as an arrow poison... 

Practically nothing is Jcnown concerning this sugar obtained by Kiliani on hydrolysis of a-antiarin, one of two glycosides isolated from the sap of the deadly upas tree, Antiaris toxicaria. The sugar has been obtained only as a sirup, but crystalline antiaronic acid has. served to characterize it as a hexomethylose isomeric with rhamnose, which is found in the hydrolysis products of 3-antiarin. 

Fruit from the tree Tanghinia venenifera used in Madagascar as a trial by ordeal poison. The Asian upas tree is similar and legend had it that sleeping under this tree was lethal. Both fruits contain cardiac glycosides. 

Occurrence. 6-Deoxy-D-gulose (36) occurs in steroidal glycosides,160 for example, from the sap of the upas tree, Antiaris toxicaria,169 from the walldower, Cheiranthus cheiri,170 and from Digitalis canariensis var. isabelliana.162 It has also been described in the lipopolysaccharide O-antigen of Yersinia enterocolitica serotype 0 8.171... 

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