Poisons, Toxins and Venoms
More often than not these words are interrelated and confused. Nevertheless these are feared and often less understood. Herein I try to explain more of each and delve into their secrets.
Poison.
Poison is any substance which can cause entoxication(bio-chemical harm) when consumed. This might be inhaled, eaten, or taken in by other natural or unnatural methods.
Toxin.
Toxin is any chemical substance that causes undesirable bio-chemical reactions in the human body with permanent or temporary harmful effects.
Toxicity refers to the strength of a toxin. A toxin is said to have an higher toxicity if the same amount of another toxin produces lesser harmful or undesirable effects.
a Lethal Dose is that amount of a toxin which causes death of an healthy adult (man)
One of the most lethal toxins known to man is Batrachotoxin with an LD50 value of 1 to 2 µg/kg for humans. This means that 1 to 2 microgrammes of this toxin administered to 100 men of weight 1 Kg each will kill 50 of them. LD50 values may vary slightly across mammals but are essentially close, and gives a fair idea of the lethality of the Venom.
Venom.
Venom is any substance often harmful when injected into the human body. Venom is often injected into the human body by cretaures which sting, bite or prick and these creatures are termed Venomous.
A substance can be poisonous or non-poisnous depending upon its concentration and amount. While most gases are non-poisnous in trace amounts, they become poisonous when found in higher concentrations.
Then there are slow and fast posions.
Fast poisons are called toxins and relatively smaller amounts of these form lethal doses.
One of the better known fast poisons is Pottasium Cyanide (KCN) which is often shown to kill a man instantly upon oral consumption. Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN gaseous) and Sodium Cyanide (NaCN) are other fast poisons of the cyanide family.
Perhaps the most toxic and fast acting poisonous substances known to man are anthrax and butolinum and even trace amounts of these substances are known to be lethal.
Slow poisons are everywhere around us and our body has successful counteracting mechanisms to fight against these. However upon constant exposure to some slow poisons, death is inevitable. Some slow poisons are Mercury, Nicotine and Arsenic.
Oxygen is the slowest of them all. Cause if all else fails then Oxygen will definetely kill us by a poisoning process called oxidation. Oxygen that we breath and use for a lot of our body mechanism causes oxidation of our cells and tissues, even after the healing and regeneration process in most of our cells and tissues have stopped this continues and thus aging sets in and we eventually die. Aging is the price we pay for using a poison for our living.
Venoms are cocktails of bio-chemical toxins in deadly concentrations. Venoms are both an offensive as well as defensive weapon of some venomous creatures which would have otherwise not been able to survive against the treachery of the wild. A few snakes, less than 10% ever known, are venomous and even a smaller fraction of that are lethal to man.
Neurotoxins Vs Hemotoxins. Some snakes deliver neurotoxin venoms (Proteroglypha) while others deliver Hemotoxins (Solenoglypha). While neurotoxins attack the nerves and paralyse the body, causing the heart and lungs to stop pumping the Hemotoxins distroy the cells and tissues and cause blood vessels to rupture and thus case haemorrhage or Brain death. The Cobras, Karaits, Mambas, Taipans and the Coral Snakes.. deliver Neurotoxins and the Vipers deliver Hemtoxins. Both can be fatal, however Neurotoxins are proven to be more effective on mammals like man.
The most venomous snake in the world is not any more debatable and and we have clear vison of which are the most dreadest snakes in this world. While Vipers are from the families (Viperidae) of snakes which are venomous, its the Elapids, which are most venomous, namely the Cobras, the Kraits, the Mambas and the Coral Snakes to the Taipans and the sea snakes. All belong to this deadly family of Elapids which have been a dread amongs most mammals ever to roam the earth. Surely this suggests that venoms was a sure success formula for the snakes and the most evolved snakes have used these in there armoury and have emerged at the top of the food chain due to the strength of their venoms.
The Inland Taipan stores the most toxic venom in its glands. However since it has to deal no more than rats and moles on the Australian terrain, it delivers very miniscule amounts of venoms. On the other hand cobras and mambas share their habitats with much larger mammals (read felines and pachyderms) and have developed mechanisms to deliver huge amounts of Venom making them the deadliest snakes known to man. The King Cobra emerges as the champion of all snakes in terms of its lethality to human beings for the amounts of Venom it injects is enough to kill 200 men in 20 minutes. For this amount of this venom was developed to bring down even an Elephant... just in case.
For this reason the next Article is devoted to the life and siences of the king of the lovely snake kingdom, the King Cobra.
posted by Niraj Jha @ 10:32 PM
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