Natural Poisons and Venoms

Biogenic toxins are fascinating natural products characterized by an enormous diversity of chemical structures and pharmacological activities. They not only pose hazards to humans and animals, but they are important components in the interplay of substances and living beings in nature and, moreover, important sources for new drugs.

The present book is the first volume of the 5-volume series 'Natural Poisons and Venoms'. Volumes 1-3 cover poisons produced by plants, volume 4 summarizes poisons and venoms of animals and volume 5 deal with poisons of fungi, cyanobacteria, and other microorganisms.

This volume starts with a fundamental chapter on history, chemistry and pharmacology of natural toxins, importance of the toxins for their producer, potential danger for humans and animals, and general aspects of toxicology including notes for first aid and proposals for clinical measures. The following chapters focus on the poisonous representatives of terpenes and the related steroids. The reader will be informed about the botany and occurrence of plants producing these toxins, the chemistry, the biogenesis and the pharmacology of the toxins, possible causes of poisonings, precautions to avoid poisonings, symptoms of poisonings of humans and animals, proposals for treatment measures and the possible usefulness, in the past, in present and in the future, of these toxins, especially for the development of new medicines.

Numerous images of plants and chemical structural formulas complete the book. Extensive lists of literature references are given.

The handbook is intended for physicians, veterinarians, pharmacists, chemists, biochemists, food chemists and biologists, for the students in the relevant fields, and also for interested laymen.

You will be informed about all aspects of natural toxins based on the latest knowledge.

Eberhard Teuscher, former Professor for Pharmaceutical Biology at the University of Greifswald, Germany, and former Dean of the Faculty for Natural Sciences. Main fields of his research work were secondary metabolism of fungi, especially of ergot, and of higher plants, the mode of action of essential oils, and pharmacological investigations of the effects of natural compounds on in-vitro cultivated human and animal cells. He is the author of numerous textbooks, monographs and about 150 scientific papers. His books on 'Culinary Herbs, Spices, Spice Mixtures and Their Essential Oils' awarded the James A. Duke Award of the American Botanical Society.

Ulrike Lindequist, former Professor for Pharmaceutical Biology at the University of Greifswald, Germany, and from 1992 till March 2016 Head of the Department for Pharmaceutical Biology at the Institute for Pharmacy of this University. She became an emeritus professor in Aprile, 2016. Her research focused on isolation, chemistry, pharmacology, and toxicology of natural compounds from plants, microorganisms and mushrooms, quality, pharmacology and applicability of medicinal mushrooms, marine biotechnology and plasma medicine. She has published about 300 scientific papers and several books and monographs.

Books published jointly by the two authors include 'Biogene Arzneimittel', 8th edition in 2020, and 'Biogene Gifte', 3rd edition in 2010.