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Poison Toxicity

Pertinax

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As many of you will know I maintain a morbid interest in toxic items from ethnobotany , and likewise the animal kingdom where its creatures were known and "utilised" in a known (or fabled ) historical context...Cleopatra's asp as our most prominent , recent televised suicide in Rome 2.

 

I intend to revise my list of plant poisons (previous blogs) and add some spiteful animals (and fish).

However a scale of toxicity is needful if we are to determine the relative efficacy of our assassination tools, how do we gauge the Claudian mushrooms versus Socratic Hemlock? Quite neatly as it transpires by using a dosage per kg bodyweight index, considering of course that a small woman has a small liver and might be an easy "client" to deal with. :D

 

here we are:

 

6. supertoxic ...less than 5mg per Kg ...that is a mere taste (six or seven drops)

5. extremely toxic...5-50 mg per Kg...still not much, maybe a teaspoon for a smallish "client".

4. very toxic...50-500mg per Kg..between a teaspoon and an ounce , not much really.

3. moderately toxic...0.5-5 gm per Kg...maybe one ounce up to a pint (so not as disguisable).

below this levels 1 and 2 are sub fatal , but nasty.A sick person might succumb, but not a healthy one given a reasonably timely antidote.

 

To give some understandable benchmarks :Formaldehyde is a level 6 , particularly deadly when inhaled , but it has a vile smell( though widely used in cosmetics as a stabiliser) . Hemlock , Aconite and Oleander are all sixes as is liquid nicotine.Mandrake is a 4.

And before you take a swim , some Octopii can bite you to the tune of level 4....

and heres a link to some nice sweeties..

http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?automo...si&img=1808

 

Thats just to set the scene for some toxicological history.

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Nephele

This was entertaining and of practical use! What say you about foxglove, Pertinax? I've got a garden full of the stuff and don't know what to do with it.

 

-- Nephele

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Pertinax
This was entertaining and of practical use! What say you about foxglove, Pertinax? I've got a garden full of the stuff and don't know what to do with it.

 

-- Nephele

A most useful cardiac glycoside ...do you wish to slow someones heart?

 

http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?automo...=si&img=829

http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?automo...=si&img=646

 

quite deadly..in the wrong hands. :furious:

Very beautiful, I prefer the flesh coloured variant to the white or purple, but the latter is the easiest to grow.Toxicity level 5, all parts toxic , cooking does not destroy the glycoside. Children have died from merely sucking the leaves.So only allow those children you really dislike to eat the plant.

Oannes Pertinaxus

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Pantagathus
Children have died from merely sucking the leaves.So only allow those children you really dislike to eat the plant. - Oannes Pertinaxus

 

:thumbsup:

 

Informative as always Pertinax

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Pertinax
Children have died from merely sucking the leaves.So only allow those children you really dislike to eat the plant. - Oannes Pertinaxus

 

:thumbsup:

 

Informative as always Pertinax

Do not , of course, allow valuable Slaves to consume the leaves!

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