toxiferine
Sign in to saveAlso known as C-toxiferine I
Toxiferine, also known as c-toxiferine I, is one of the most toxic plant alkaloids known. It is derived from several plant species, including Strychnos toxifera. Historically, it has been used as an arrow poison by indigenous peoples in South America for its neuromuscular blocking properties, allowing them to paralyze animals during hunting, but also possibly kill due to paralysis of the respiratory muscles. Toxiferine functions as an acetylcholine receptor (AChR) antagonist. The paralysis caused by toxiferine can in turn be antagonized by neostigmine.
Research
459 papers- DIALLYL TOXIFERINE.British journal of anaesthesia · 1964
- Diallyl-nor-toxiferine.The New Zealand medical journal · 1966
- Semisynthetic analogues of toxiferine I and their pharmacological properties at α7 nAChRs, muscle-type nAChRs, and the allosteric binding site of muscarinic M2 receptors.Journal of natural products · 2014
- [Toxiferine: a clinical study].Agressologie: revue internationale de physio-biologie et de pharmacologie appliquees aux effets de l'agression · 1960
- [CLINICAL EXPERIENCES WITH DIALLYL-NOR-TOXIFERINE].Wiener medizinische Wochenschrift (1946) · 1965
via PubMed
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Encyclopedic overview
17 sectionsContents
- History
- Use/purpose
- Efficacy
- Mechanism of action
- Binding
- Reversing the mechanism
- Chemistry
- Structure
- Analogues
- Biosynthesis
- ADME
- Absorption
- Distribution
- Metabolism
- Excretion
- Toxicological data
- References
Toxiferine, also known as c-toxiferine I, is one of the most toxic plant alkaloids known. It is derived from several plant species, including Strychnos toxifera. Historically, it has been used as an arrow poison by indigenous peoples in South America for its neuromuscular blocking properties, allowing them to paralyze animals during hunting, but also possibly kill due to paralysis of the respiratory muscles. Toxiferine functions as an acetylcholine receptor (AChR) antagonist. The paralysis caused by toxiferine can in turn be antagonized by neostigmine.
Toxiferine is the most important component in calabash curare. Curare poisons contain many different toxins with similar properties of toxiferine. The most well known component of curare is tubocurarine. The paralysis caused by toxiferine is very similar to that caused by tubocurarine, however toxiferine is ~170 times as potent. The preparation of curare poisons involves complex rituals wherein the tribes extract toxins from various plants.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “toxiferine” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.