Medicinal Plants: Muscoskeletal System Flashcards
What is curare used as?
A muscle relaxant.
What is curare referring to?
The various toxic plant mixtures used as arrow poisons by indigenous groups in Amazonia (South America).
What species from four plant families are used by the Jamamadi of Amazonian Brazil?
1) Strychnos solimoesana (Loganiaceae)
2) Curarea toxicofera (Menispermaceae)
3) Guatteria megalophylla (Annonaceae)
4) Zanthophylllum spp. (Rutaceae)
Who undertakes the role of creating curare?
Male elders of the tribe.
How is curare harvested?
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.
Which plant families provide the potent curare poisons?
Loganiaceae and Menipsermaceae. (Including vine species).
What genus contain alkaloids such as toxiferine?
Strychnos (S. toxifera and Loganiaceae family).
What does Menispermaceae family contain?
Isoquinoline alkaloids such as tubocurarine.
What do toxiferine and tubocurarine do?
Powerful muscle relaxants that cause paralysis when injected into bloodstreams, high doses may result in death through respiratory failure.
What is the restriction of these toxiferine and tubocurarine compounds?
The are active only parenterally; they must be administered via injection, consumption may have little effect.
How do curare poisons work?
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.
Is this poison reversible?
Yes, through artificial respiration.
Who investigated curare?
Richard Gill.
What did Richard Gill look into?
Using curare as a surgical muscle relaxant.
Where did Richard Gill collect curare?
Amazonian, Ecuador, Peru.
What is this region inhabited by?
Achuar people.
Who successfully isolated the active principle tubocurarine from Chondrodendron in 1941?
Squibb and Sons.
Who first demonstrated tubocurarine as a skeletal muscle relaxant during surgery rather than anesthesia?
Harold Griffith.
What were the main plants used from the Amazonian rain forest for the tobocurarine?
Chondrodendron tomentosum and Curare toxicofera.
When were these products decided to be over harvested and created synthetically?
1980s.
What is the mode of action of these drugs?
Neuromuscular blocking agents that compete with acetylcholine to prevent the development of nerve action potential, resulting in muscle relaxation and paralysis.
What is a muscle convulsants?
Strychine.
What is the majority affect of these drugs?
Highly toxic cardiac arresting drugs.
What species were used as arrow poisoning in Northeast Asia, Chine, India, and Europe well into 18th century.
Aconite or Monkshood.
Who used aconite on spear and harpoon points to hunt whales and other aquatic mammals?
Indigenous groups on the Aleutian and Kodiak Islands of Alaska.
What neurotoxin does monkshood contain?
Aconitine, highly poisonous alkaloid that induces respiratory paralysis and cardiac arrest causing death.
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?
Upas Latex.
What poison does Upas Latex hold?
Antiarin, a poisonous cardenolide glycoside.
What produces an arrow poison latex that is biochemically similar to upas latex?
Amazonian rainforest genera Naucleopsis and Maquira.
What family is the genera Strophanthus and Acokanthera, both producing latex exudates rich in cardiac arresting cardenolide glycosides (potent and rapidly acting ouabin)?
Dogbane.
What specie type are Strophanthus and Acokanthera and where were they used to produce the arrow poison?
Shrubs, central Africa.
What is another African plant producing latex?
Calotropis procera, also contains potent cardenolide glycosides.
When were the arrow poison cardiac glycosides investigated for treatment of congestive heart failure?
20th century.
What did this investigation spur, despite adverse side effects?
Development of safer, semi-synthetic cardiac stimulants.
What have some cardenolides been investigated for?
Their potential in treating inflammatory diseases and as possible anti-cancer agents.
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?
Calotropis procera.
In Africa, what produces a curare type arrow poisonings that induces muscle paralysis?
Strychnos usambarensis.
What do other members of the Strychnos family do?
Contain powerful convulsant alkaloids (strychnine and brucine) that induce uncontrolled spasmodic muscle contractions and convulsions.
____based arrow poisons, produced from the seeds of Strychnos nux-vomica and S.ignati, were used commonly in Southeast Asia and India?
Strychnine. Also used as a homicide poison in 19th century Europe.
