These Indians knew one of the most poisonous plants–Strychnos toxifera–a 12-meter-long tropical liana with simple, oval leaves, small green blossoms and red spherical bitter fruit. Since ancient times Indians have been preparing a black resinous liquid from the bark of strychnos–furari (killing birds), which we call curare now. 

The poison is extremely strong but only if it comes in contact with blood. Brazilians used to have a very peculiar way of testing it: if a hit monkey did a single last leap before falling dead on the ground, the poison had been good. But if it was able to jump three or four times more, it had not been strong enough. Curare arrows were specific: 20 cm long, usually 600 in the quiver. They were blown out to as far as 100 m through a 3 m long bamboo pipe. However, curare was used not only as “artillery” but also in hand-to-hand fights. Indians coated their nails with the deadly poison, so just a little scratch was necessary to produce terrible poisoning. Shortly after that, spasms of the chewing muscles appeared, as well as opistotonus, vomiting, diarrhea, increased blood pressure, wheezing and spasms of all muscles involved in breathing, and finally, cyanosis–blue skin as a result of oxygen deficiency in the blood–leading to suffocation, collapse and death. 

In 1818, the French pharmacists Pierre-Joseph Pelletier and Joseph-Bienaim Caventou, having examined the Strychnos fruit, identified a new alkaloid of concentration 2-4%. This new alkaloid was strychnine, which was later applied in medicine as a stimulator of the nervous system–including the sensory organs–and as a reliable anaesthetic.

Strychnos Copyright © Thomas Schöpke http://www.plant-pictures.com