Toxin (Part 3).
What better time of year to add another toxicological entry?
Nicotine: alkaloid insecticidal chemical, can be toxic if ingested through the skin or inhaled.
Ordeal bean (Physostigma venemosum) a member of the pea family, a west African native.One quarter bean can be fatal to an adult.
Oxygen: poisinous to anerobic bacteria Which is why exposing a gangrenous wound to the air (ie: oxygen)
helps the cleansing of that wound. Essential to metabolism -many poisons work by impeding its progress to our blood.Botox is of course a derivative of Clostridium botulinum a virulent anerobic bacteria which is now routinely pumped into womens faces, killing the surrounding flesh and relaxing frown lines (leaving neat pockets of anerobic hapiness).
Quinine: very poisinous in a large dose, anti malarial in a controlled one.
Ricin: castor oil seed cake residue -only a few seeds are needed to kill.
Rotenone: a pesticide made from the root of Jamaica dogwood (fish poison tree) .
Strychnine: from the dried ripe Nux vomica seed.
Wormwood: atremisia, which kills helminths (human intestinal/encysted worms).
Thats it for the abbreviated glossary, I hope to add some notes on the historical use of these items particularly in relation to the classical world.
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