In literature, poisons are a powerful murder weapon – toxicologist explains how certain dangerous chemicals kill

People used poisons throughout history for a number of purposes: hunting animals for food, curing diseases, and achieving nefarious goals similar to murder and manslaughter.

But what’s poison? Do all poisons work the identical? Does the quantity of poison matter to its toxicity?

I’m a toxicologist which studies how chemicals affect human health, especially once they cause harmful effects. As a fan of crime and mystery novels that always feature poisons, I even have noticed a few poisons that appear repeatedly in books, television, and flicks. How they really work is as fascinating as how they are used for evil purposes in fiction.

What is poison?

sixteenth century physician-alchemist Paracelsus, considered the daddy of toxicology, once wrote: “What is not poison? Everything is poison and nothing is without poison. Only the dose determines whether something is not a poison.” According to this saying, any substance in the suitable amount will be a poison.

Many people intentionally expose themselves to chemicals similar to ethanol in alcoholic beverages, nicotine in tobacco products, and botulinum toxin during Botox treatment in relatively small doses, which causes minimal negative effects. However, at high enough doses, these chemicals will be deadly. The body’s response often depends upon how the chemical interacts with receptors inside or on the surface of cells or how it binds to enzymes utilized in biological processes. Often higher concentrations of drugs result in stronger reactions.

Contrary to Paracelsus’ theorem, in popular culture the term “poison” is commonly reserved for chemicals that don’t normally occur in on a regular basis life and which, even in relatively small amounts, may cause harmful health effects.

Poisons in books, television and film

Novelists, television and film scriptwriters use quite a few poisons of their works, including those who are chemical elements, similar to: arsenic AND poloniumand people derived from animals, e.g snake venom AND puffer poison. Many plant poisons have also been utilized in fiction for evil purposes.

On the AMC series “Bada fracture”, high school chemistry teacher Walter White uses a compound called ricin to murder business executive Lydia Rodarte-Quayle. Ricin is a very strong poison obtained from castor beans Common tick and can be especially deadly if inhaled. Once this compound enters the cell, damages a structure called the ribosome chargeable for the synthesis of proteins needed for cell functioning. Ingestion of ricin may cause intestinal bleeding, organ damage and death.

Sometimes individual organs are far more vulnerable to the consequences of the poison. Doctors use digitalis medicines similar to digoxin, which come from plants within the foxglove family, used to treat congestive heart failure and heart rhythm problems. However, when given in large enough doses, they’ll result in heart failure and death. By interfering with a protein in heart cells called the so-called sodium-potassium pumpthey’ll reduce the frequency of electrical impulses in the center and increase the strength of its contractions. This may end up in a dangerous variety of irregular heartbeat called ventricular fibrillation and result in death.

The villain from the James Bond movieCasino Royale”, Le Chiffre, persuades his girlfriend to kill Bond by poisoning his martini with foxglove. In high doses, digitalis medications can alter the activity of the autonomic nervous system, which controls unconscious body functions similar to heart pumping.

TV show characters are not resistant to the risks of poisonous mushrooms. One particularly potent mushroom, Amanita verna, is named the “destroying angel”. In the ITV series “Midsomer Murders”, puppet show owner and presumed prominent citizen Evelyn Pope, uses this mushroom to fatally poison chef Tristan Goodfellow as part of a murder spree against the estate’s heirs. This mushroom contains various chemicals called amatoxins which are believed to inhibit the activity of a specific enzyme necessary for production messenger RNAor mRNA, a molecule needed for protein synthesis in cells. Because ingested amatoxins primarily attack the liver, these poisons can severely disrupt the liver’s ability to repair itself, resulting in lack of function that can be fatal within the absence of liver transplantation.

Another very talked-about poison in crime and mystery novels is poison strychnine. In Agatha Christie’s story “Mysterious case in Styles”, Alfred Inglethorp and his lover Evelyn Howard use this poison to kill Inglethorp’s wife and the rich landlady of a country manor, Emily Inglethorp.

Strychnine, which comes from seeds Strychnos nux-vomica tree, affects the nervous system by blocking a neurotransmitter called glycine within the spinal cord and brainstem. Typically, glycine slows down neuronal activity and prevents muscle contractions. By blocking glycine, ingestion of strychnine may cause excessive activation of neurons and muscles, resulting in a series of muscle spasms throughout the body that may turn into so intense that they cause respiratory arrest and death.

There are many more poisons in nature than described here. In addition to potentially increasing your enjoyment of crime and crime stories, understanding the mechanisms of motion of those poisons can further enable you to appreciate the complexity of how foreign chemicals affect the human body.