What is Strychnine
Strychnine is a particularly toxic alkaloid, still used today as a pesticide against small vertebrates such as birds and rodents.
More rarely, strychnine is found in very small doses mixed with drugs such as heroin, cocaine and LSD.
Poisoning can occur by accidental ingestion of pesticides, contaminated food and water, or by inhalation or absorption of strychnine through the membranes of the nose, eyes and mouth.
Employments
Despite the high poisonous power, until the middle of the last century small doses of strychnine were used in stimulating preparations, laxatives and against stomach ailments.
Also well known is the "use of the substance in sports for doping purposes, in particular in the early 1900s Olympics" (famous are the cases of Thomas Hicks in the 1904 Saint Luis Olympics and of Dorando Pietri in the 1908 London Olympics).
Where is it
Strychnine is contained in the seeds of plants belonging to the genus Strychnos; the highest concentration was found in the cortex of Strychnos Icaja (6.6%), although the substance is traditionally extracted from the seeds of nux vomica (Strychnos nux vomica), an arboreal plant that grows in Australia and in the South Asian regions (India, Sri Lanka, and East Indies). Strychnine comes as a white powder - crystalline, odorless and with an extremely bitter taste - which can be taken by mouth, inhalation or intravenous solution.
How it works
Strychnine is a competitive antagonist of glycine, an inhibitory neurotransmitter of the central nervous system, particularly the spinal cord.
The poison acts by preventing the interaction of glycine with its specific receptors. Lacking this very important inhibitory brake, prolonged, painful and generalized muscle contractions are produced, similar to convulsions. The simultaneous contraction of the extensor and flexor muscles causes serious damage muscle, with myoglobinuria and the appearance of specific markers (CPK) in the circulation.
Symptoms of strychnine poisoning may appear shortly after ingestion, usually within 15 to 30 minutes, and depending on the dose taken can be dramatic. Symptoms include: agitation, apprehension, fear, restlessness, painful muscle spasms which can cause fever. and hepato-renal lesions, tension of the jaw and forced facial grimaces. In the most serious intoxications, opisthotonus appears: following even minimal sensory stimulation, the body stiffens, the head bends backwards and the back arches in the typical position of hyperflexion ; few of these attacks can cause death from asphyxiation.
The patient poisoned with strychnine is awake and painfully aware of muscle contractions, a characteristic - this - that differentiates the symptomatology from epileptic seizures.
In addition to asphyxia from spastic paralysis of the respiratory muscles, death can occur from hyperthermia or renal insufficiency from excessive rhabdomyolysis.
Treatment of poisoning
As there is no specific antidote against strychnine, the therapy is based on the administration of benzodiazepines (relax the skeletal muscles), activated charcoal or equivalent substances (facilitate the elimination of strychnine not yet absorbed) and oxygen in case of need. It is indicated. body temperature monitoring and hospitalization in quiet environments to minimize sensory stimuli.
Homeopathy
Although the therapeutic index (ratio between lethal dose in 50% of the sample and effective dose in 50% of the sample) is so low as to be practically non-existent, strychnine is used, indirectly and in small doses, in homeopathic medicine, where even today extensive use is made of preparations obtained from ripe and dried seeds of nux vomica, indicated in the presence of constipation, haemorrhoidal affections, general malaise and muscle-tendon disorders.
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