History and Scope of Toxicology

Question 1

the science of adverse effects of xenobiotics

Answer 1

toxicology

Question 2

chemicals or substances that are foreign to an organism or biological system

Answer 2

xenobiotics

Question 3

examples of endogenous compounds

Answer 3

urea
peroxides
cholesterol

Question 4

toxicologists study

Answer 4

the underlying mechanisms that cause xenobiotics to be toxic

Question 5

natural plant poisons have been known since

Answer 5

prehistoric times

Question 6

examples of natural poisons

Answer 6

snake venom
poisonous fish
bacteria

Question 7

first written medical document

Answer 7

ebers papyrus

Question 8

described poisons and their clinical use around 400BC

Answer 8

hippocrates

Question 9

lived between 470-39BC and was forced to take hemlock as state execution

Answer 9

socrates

Question 10

wrote the De Historia Plantarum to describe poisonous plants

Answer 10

theophrastus

Question 11

performed acute toxicology experiments on himself building up resistance to 54 ingredients and developed antidotes

Answer 11

mithridates

Question 12

wrote the De material medica which became the most central pharmacological work in Europe and the middle east for 16 centuries

Answer 12

Dioscorides

Question 13

one of the few during the middle ages who was writing books about toxicology

Answer 13

maimonides

Question 14

Founder of experimental toxicology

Answer 14

paracelcus

Question 15

Four principles of paracelcus

Answer 15

1. experimentation is essential to understanding responses to chemicals
2. there is a distinction between therapeutic and toxic properties of a compound
3. the dose determines therapeutic vs. toxic effects
4. chemicals have specific effects