b'SENSE, NONSENSE AND SCIENCEBY: JOE SCHWARCZFORAGE & TURFSeed Sector Adjusts to Tight Supply and Rising DemandADGER BANKEN VP Wholesale & ProcurementDLFab@dlf.comdlf.com@DLF_Seeds POISONS, TOXINS AND VENOMST he puffer fish is poisonous but notWhile the spikes on the puffer do notthe horses blood that could treat the dis-venomous while a rattlesnake is ven- deliver tetrodotoxin, a dagger shoe didease. Calmette followed a similar procedure omous but not poisonous. Both canexactly that in Ian Flemings 1956 novelwith cobra venom and managed to isolate kill you with their toxins. Sound confusing?From Russia With Love. James Bondan antivenom in a similar fashion. The same Lets try to clear it up. A poison is any sub- collapses after being kicked by villain Rosaprocedure is used today, but the problem is stance that when introduced into a livingKlebb with a tetrodotoxina coatedthat snake venom has great variability in organism kills or injures it in some way. Ifblade that springs out from her shoe. Aschemical composition, and every type of the poison is produced by a living organismexplained in Dr. No, the next Bond novel,snake requires a different antivenom. These such as bacteria, plants, fungi, or animals,007 survived because a doctor thought heare not always available and unfortunately then it is called a toxin. Both the puffer fishhad been poisoned with curare and treatedsome 125,000 people die every year from and the rattlesnake produce toxins, but theyhim with the appropriate curare antidotesnakebite.do not deliver them the same way. If a toxinthat also happened to work for tetrodo- While snake venom can kill, it can alco is delivered via a sting or bite, it is called atoxin poisoning. Curare causes paralysis bycure. A number of medications have been venom. Essentially all toxins are poisons,blocking the action of the neurotransmit- developed based upon studying the chemis-but not all poisons are toxins. Potassiumter acetylcholine and drugs that increasetry of snake venom. Perhaps the best exam-cyanide for example is certainly a poison,levels of acetylcholine, physostigmine, forple is Captopril, a drug widely used to lower but it is not a toxin because it isnt producedexample, can serve as an antidote for curareblood pressure. In 1965, a peptide from the by a living organism. To simplify things, ifpoisoning. However, there is no antidote forvenom of the Brazilian pit viper was isolated you bite it and you die, its poisonous. If ittetrodotoxin, so we have to assume that itand found the inhibit the action of angi-bites you and you die, its venomous. In bothwas Bonds strong constitution that allowedotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) that is cases, the culprit is a toxin. him to live another day. involved in raising blood pressure. In general, when a toxin is eaten orWhile there is no antidote for tetrodo- While there are no venomous plants, absorbed through the skin it is usuallytoxin, there is for snake venom. Historicallythere certainly are poisonous ones. You referred to as a poison, so a rattlesnakethat takes us back to the 1890s whenwould do well to stay clear of any man-would not be poisonous because it can beFrench physician Albert Calmette becamechineel trees that you may encounter on eaten. Its toxin is found only in its venom.intrigued with the lethal venom of thea trip to Florida. The fruit of the tree was The puffer fish, despite the protrudingIndian cobra while working at the Pasteurdescribed by Columbus as death apples, spikes on its skin, is not venomous becauseInstitute in Saigon. He knew about thealthough one wonders about how he dis-the spikes do not contain tetrodotoxin, thework of Emil von Behring who had inoc- covered this. That bit of information is potentially lethal toxin found in some of theulated horses with the bacteria that causeconveyed on a sign posted on manchineel fishs organs.diphtheria and isolated an antitoxin fromtrees that also warns to avoid any contact with the tree and to forget about seeking shelter from the rain under the trees leaves because rain can dislodge sap that can cause terrible blisters.Blisters are one thing, death quite another. An episode of the hit television series White Lotus features an attempted murder with the seeds of the pong-pong tree native to Asia. The tree bears fruit with seeds that that contain cerberin, a car-diac glycoside that can stop the heart, jus-tifying the term, suicide tree. In the show the murderer changes his mind and knocks the toxic pina colada he had prepared with the seeds out of the intended victims hands. So, there was no need to involve possible treatments for the poisoning in the plot. That would be atropine, a toxin found in the bella donna plant. Toxins can kill or cure.Joe Schwarcz PhD is Director, McGill University Office for Science and Society, Montreal, QC, Canada.NOVEMBER 2025|SEEDWORLD.COM/EUROPEISEED WORLD EUROPE I 33'