The effect of this is that neurons are no longer able to function, resulting in paralysis. These dramatic effects on nerves and muscles are caused by a huge intracellular rush of positively-charged sodium ions, but also larger ammonium, potassium and caesium ions resulting in a huge depolarization of the nerve membrane. It has a particularly severe effect on the heart, where it permanently interferes with conduction, causing arrhythmias, ventricular fibrillation and eventual cardiac failure. There is no effective antidote for batrachotoxin poisoning.īatrachotoxin’s lethality is achieved through permanently blocking the transmission of nerve signals to the muscles. Upon exposure to batrachotoxin, death is most likely to be unavoidable, and will result from uncontrollable convulsions, heart failure and/or suffocation in less than 10 minutes.
#Dart frogs for sale skin
On average a single frog will harbour around 10 times this lethal dose beneath its skin at any one time. To put this in context, this is more toxic than the famously deadly curare and tetrodotoxin that are found elsewhere in nature, and is over 1000 times more poisonous than cyanide. For example, just one hundred millionths of a gram of batrachotoxin, the equivalent of two grains of table salt, is sufficient to kill a 68kg human being. This compound is a remarkably effective means of defence with deadly consequences to its prey. Batrachotoxin is released by these frogs in response to agitation, pain or an external threat, whether that be a potential predator, adversary or even a curious human being, where it is reflexively released in milky secretions from secretory canals and glands located on its back and behind its ears. Its chemical structure consists of a steroidal carbocyclic core – akin to that of cholesterol and testosterone – with the added feature of a transannular seven-membered oxazapine heterocylic ring. The neurotoxin it produces is a polycyclic steroidal alkaloid called batrachotoxin, derived from the Greek words for ‘frog’ and for ‘toxin’. This particular frog is native to western Colombia and is considered by many to be one of the most poisonous animals in the world. However, it is one particular defence toxin of one particular frog – Phyllobates terribilis – the golden poison frog, that is to be feared the most. In fact, amphibians have provided scientists with a diverse array of over 800 biologically active alkaloids that are as yet completely unknown elsewhere in the natural world.
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