Poison of the Golden Tree Frog
By: Davis Boyd
Where the poison is found
The poison(Batrachotoxin) is found in the golden tree frog which is located in the forests of Central and South America. The toxin can also be found in a few different animals.
Characteristics of the Poison
The poison has a clear or milky color, but the color of the frog can indicate that the frog may carry the poison. The poison's taste is unknown because no one has tasted the poison and lived.
Effect on the Body
The poison irreversibly forces the sodium channels to open which causes nerves and muscle cells to change. This prevents the victim's nerves from transmitting impulses leaving the muscles in an inactive state causing a heart attack or fibrillation. The poison may also cause suffocation, cardiac, or paralysis.
Minimum Lethal Dose
It takes about 1-2ug/kg of poison to kill a human. This means for a 68kg (150lb) person it takes about 100 micro-grams of the poison to kill them. Also, it takes about 1mg to kill 10-20 people.
Delivery of the Poison
The frog only secretes the poison when it feels threatened. For some species of the frog, the poison can be transmitted by simply touching the frog, but for others the poison has to have a way into the body, such as through a cut or licking the poison, for it to affect the person.
Acute Poisoning Symptons
A few symptoms are: cardiac arrest, suffocation, paralysis, and fibrillation
Time for Poison to Work
It can kill a person 10 minutes after they have been exposed to the poison.
Traces of the Poison
A medical examiner might be able to identify this poison in a persons body if they see: structural changes in nerve and muscle cells, if the sodium ion channels are open, if the cell membranes are depolarized, if the victim went into cardiac arrest, if the victim suffocated, and/or if there was destruction of synaptic vesicles.
Treatment
There are currently no antidotes for the poison but the membrane depolarization can be prevented or reversed by tetrotoxin or saxitoxin.
Extra Facts
- Frogs bred in captivity do not contain the poison
- Also known as the Golden Dart/Arrow frog
- The pigment on the frog warns predators of its toxicity
- Believed to gain the poison by eating a beetle
- Poison is used by natives to hunt
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