Medicinal Plants: Muscoskeletal System

Question 1

What is curare used as?

Answer 1

A muscle relaxant.

Question 2

What is curare referring to?

Answer 2

The various toxic plant mixtures used as arrow poisons by indigenous groups in Amazonia (South America).

Question 3

What species from four plant families are used by the Jamamadi of Amazonian Brazil?

Answer 3

1) Strychnos solimoesana (Loganiaceae)
2) Curarea toxicofera (Menispermaceae)
3) Guatteria megalophylla (Annonaceae)
4) Zanthophylllum spp. (Rutaceae)

Question 4

Who undertakes the role of creating curare?

Answer 4

Male elders of the tribe.

Question 5

How is curare harvested?

Answer 5

Inner stem bark is scraped away and filtered through a sieve to collect the concentrate, which is then carefully rolled onto dart tips and allowed to dry.

Question 6

Which plant families provide the potent curare poisons?

Answer 6

Loganiaceae and Menipsermaceae. (Including vine species).

Question 7

What genus contain alkaloids such as toxiferine?

Answer 7

Strychnos (S. toxifera and Loganiaceae family).

Question 8

What does Menispermaceae family contain?

Answer 8

Isoquinoline alkaloids such as tubocurarine.

Question 9

What do toxiferine and tubocurarine do?

Answer 9

Powerful muscle relaxants that cause paralysis when injected into bloodstreams, high doses may result in death through respiratory failure.

Question 10

What is the restriction of these toxiferine and tubocurarine compounds?

Answer 10

The are active only parenterally; they must be administered via injection, consumption may have little effect.

Question 11

How do curare poisons work?

Answer 11

1) Paralyze the face and neck.
2) Paralyze limbs.
3) Muscle paralysis spreads to abdominal and respiratory regions.
4) Muscles of diaphragm.

Death usually occurs within 5 minutes.

Question 12

Is this poison reversible?

Answer 12

Yes, through artificial respiration.

Question 13

Who investigated curare?

Answer 13

Richard Gill.

Question 14

What did Richard Gill look into?

Answer 14

Using curare as a surgical muscle relaxant.

Question 15

Where did Richard Gill collect curare?

Answer 15

Amazonian, Ecuador, Peru.

Question 16

What is this region inhabited by?

Answer 16

Achuar people.

Question 17

Who successfully isolated the active principle tubocurarine from Chondrodendron in 1941?

Answer 17

Squibb and Sons.

Question 18

Who first demonstrated tubocurarine as a skeletal muscle relaxant during surgery rather than anesthesia?

Answer 18

Harold Griffith.

Question 19

What were the main plants used from the Amazonian rain forest for the tobocurarine?

Answer 19

Chondrodendron tomentosum and Curare toxicofera.

Question 20

When were these products decided to be over harvested and created synthetically?

Answer 20

1980s.

Question 21

What is the mode of action of these drugs?

Answer 21

Neuromuscular blocking agents that compete with acetylcholine to prevent the development of nerve action potential, resulting in muscle relaxation and paralysis.

Question 22

What is a muscle convulsants?

Answer 22

Strychine.

Question 23

What is the majority affect of these drugs?

Answer 23

Highly toxic cardiac arresting drugs.

Question 24

What species were used as arrow poisoning in Northeast Asia, Chine, India, and Europe well into 18th century.

Answer 24

Aconite or Monkshood.

Question 25

Who used aconite on spear and harpoon points to hunt whales and other aquatic mammals?

Answer 25

Indigenous groups on the Aleutian and Kodiak Islands of Alaska.

Question 26

What neurotoxin does monkshood contain?

Answer 26

Aconitine, highly poisonous alkaloid that induces respiratory paralysis and cardiac arrest causing death.

Question 27

What is a toxin of the upas tree, a rapidly growing, tall member of the Mulberry family, and used in arrow hunting in China and Southeast Asia?

Answer 27

Upas Latex.

Question 28

What poison does Upas Latex hold?

Answer 28

Antiarin, a poisonous cardenolide glycoside.

Question 29

What produces an arrow poison latex that is biochemically similar to upas latex?

Answer 29

Amazonian rainforest genera Naucleopsis and Maquira.

Question 30

What family is the genera Strophanthus and Acokanthera, both producing latex exudates rich in cardiac arresting cardenolide glycosides (potent and rapidly acting ouabin)?

Answer 30

Dogbane.

Question 31

What specie type are Strophanthus and Acokanthera and where were they used to produce the arrow poison?

Answer 31

Shrubs, central Africa.

Question 32

What is another African plant producing latex?

Answer 32

Calotropis procera, also contains potent cardenolide glycosides.

Question 33

When were the arrow poison cardiac glycosides investigated for treatment of congestive heart failure?

Answer 33

20th century.

Question 34

What did this investigation spur, despite adverse side effects?

Answer 34

Development of safer, semi-synthetic cardiac stimulants.

Question 35

What have some cardenolides been investigated for?

Answer 35

Their potential in treating inflammatory diseases and as possible anti-cancer agents.

Question 36

Latex extracts from what plant have been shown to reduce sensitivity to painful stimuli, the analgesic effect independent of the opioid system targeted by analgesic opiates?

Answer 36

Calotropis procera.

Question 37

In Africa, what produces a curare type arrow poisonings that induces muscle paralysis?

Answer 37

Strychnos usambarensis.

Question 38

What do other members of the Strychnos family do?

Answer 38

Contain powerful convulsant alkaloids (strychnine and brucine) that induce uncontrolled spasmodic muscle contractions and convulsions.

Question 39

____based arrow poisons, produced from the seeds of Strychnos nux-vomica and S.ignati, were used commonly in Southeast Asia and India?

Answer 39

Strychnine. Also used as a homicide poison in 19th century Europe.