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| World's Deadliest Poisons |
World's Deadliest Poisons
I
know it may seem like I'm helping a lot of killers out there 'up their
game' with this post, but my motives are simply scientific.☺ In biology,
poisons are substances that cause disturbances in organisms, usually by
chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when an
organism absorbs a sufficient quantity. Poisons are definitely among
fiction’s greatest weapons. Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes seem to
have developed our interest in untraceable, fast-acting poisons. In case
you do not know who Sherlock Holmes is, then a big part of your life is
missing. However, murder mystery and solving crimes are one thing, but
when the story becomes reality, you have got yourself a real killer!
Thousands
of chemical compounds exist in the world today which are toxic to man,
I'd say there are only a handful of things that you ingest, inhale or
simply come in contact with that won't kill you. Here's a list of the
deadliest poisons used to kill people.
10. Hemlock
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Hemlock
or Conium is a highly toxic flowering plant indigenous to Europe and
South Africa. It was a popular one with the ancient Greeks, who used it
to kill off their prisoners. For an adult, the ingestion of 100mg of
conium or about 8 leaves of the plant is fatal – death comes in the form
of paralysis, your mind is wide awake, but your body doesn’t respond
and eventually the respiratory system shuts down. Probably the most
famous hemlock poisoning is that of the Greek philosopher, Socrates.
Condemned to death for impiety in 399 BC, he was given a very concentrated infusion of hemlock. Hmm... Really tragic.
9. Aconite
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Aconite
comes from the plant monkshood. Lovers of the Vampire Diaries Tv series
(like myself) will be thrilled to know that this plant is also known as
Wolfsbane. Aconite leaves only one post-mortem sign, that of asphyxia,
as it causes arrhythmic heart function which leads to suffocation.
Poisoning can occur even after touching the leaves of the plant without
wearing gloves as it is very rapidly and easily absorbed.
Because
of its untraceable nature, it has been a popular one with the “get away
with murder” crowd. Reportedly, it has a particularly famous casualty.
Emperor Claudius is said to have been poisoned by his wife, Agrippina,
using aconite in a plate of mushrooms. Well, obviously, if you're
planning on killing a werewolf anytime soon, be sure to pack a lot of
Wolfsbane.
8. Belladonna
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This
was a favourite of the ladies! The name of this plant is Italian and
means 'beautiful woman'. That’s because it was used in the middle-ages
for cosmetic purposes – diluted eye-drops dilated the pupils, making the
women more seductive (or so they thought). Also, if gently rubbed on
their checks, it would create a reddish colour, what today would be
known as a blush! This plant seems innocent enough, right?
Well,
actually, if ingested, a single leaf is lethal and that’s why it was
used to make poison-tipped arrows. The berries of this plant are the
most dangerous – consumption of ten of the attractive-looking berries is
fatal.
7. Dimethylmercury
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This
one is a slow killer – a man-made slow killer! But this is exactly what
makes it all the more dangerous. Absorption of doses as low as 0.1ml
have proven fatal; however, symptoms of poisoning start showing after
months of initial exposure, which is definitely too late for any kind of
treatment.
In
1996, a chemistry professor at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire,
spilled a drop or two of the poison on her gloved hand – dimethylmercury
went through the latex glove, symptoms appeared four months later and
ten months later, she died.
6. Tetrodotoxin
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This
substance is found in two marine creatures – the blue-ringed octopus
and the puffer fish. However, the octopus is the most dangerous, because
it purposely injects its venom, killing in minutes. It carries enough
venom to kill 26 human adults within minutes and the bites are often
painless, so many victims realise they have been bitten only when
paralysis sets in.
On
the other hand, the puffer fish is only lethal if you want to eat it,
but if it is well prepared, meaning the venom is taken out, the only
thing that’s left is the adrenaline of eating something which could kill
you.
5. Polonium
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Polonium
is a radioactive poison, a slow killer with no cure. One gramme of
vaporised polonium can kill about 1.5 million people in just a couple of
months. The most famous case of polonium poisoning is that of
ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.
Polonium
was found in his tea cup – a dose 200 times higher than the median
lethal dose in case of ingestion. He died in three weeks.
4. Mercury
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There
are three forms of mercury which are extremely dangerous. Elemental
mercury is the one you can find in glass thermometers, it’s not harmful
if touched, but lethal if inhaled. Inorganic mercury is used to make
batteries and is deadly only when ingested.
And
finally, organic mercury is found in fish, such as tuna and swordfish
(consumption should be limited to 170g per week), but can be potentially
deadly over long periods of time. A famous death caused by mercury is
that of Amadeus Mozart, who was given mercury pills to treat his
syphili
3. Cyanide
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Now
here’s one right out of an Agatha Christie novel. Cyanide seems to be
extremely popular (spies use cyanide pills to kill themselves when
caught) and there are plenty of reasons for this. Firstly, it is found
in a great variety of substances like almonds, apple seeds, apricot
kernel, tobacco smoke, insecticides, pesticides and the list goes on.
Murder, in this case, can be blamed on a household accident, such as
ingestion of pesticide – a fatal dose of cyanide for humans is 1.5 mg
per kilogramme of body weight. Secondly, it’s a rapid killer: depending
on the dose, death occurs within 1 to 15 minutes.
Also,
in its gaseous form – hydrogen cyanide – it was the agent used by Nazi
Germany for mass murders in gas chambers during the Holocaust.
If
you're a fan of the TV series Limitless, then you probably must have
heard them say Cyanide is basically untraceable in the victim's body.
This compound is a known inhibitor of the Electron Transport Chain and
oxidative phosphorylation, thereby preventing ATP synthesis.
2. Botulinum Toxin
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If
you’re watching Sherlock Holmes, then you’ll know about this one. The
Botulinum toxin causes Botulism, a fatal condition if not treated
immediately. It involves muscle paralysis, eventually leading to the
paralysis of the respiratory system and, consequently, death.
The
bacteria enter the body through open wounds or by ingesting
contaminated food. By the way, botulinum toxin is the same stuff used
for Botox injections especially in the treatment of Excessive sweating disorders!
1. Arsenic
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Arsenic
has been called “The King of Poisons”, for its discreetness and potency
– it was virtually undetectable, so it was very often used either as a
murder weapon or as a mystery story element. But that’s until the Marsh
test came and signalled the presence of this poison in water, food and
the like
However,
this king of poisons has taken many famous lives: Napoleon Bonaparte,
George the 3rd of England and Simon Bolivar to name a few. On another
note, arsenic, like belladonna, was used by the Victorians for cosmetic
reasons. A couple of drops of the stuff made a woman’s complexion white
and pale. Just perfect! From basic Biochemistry, I know (that means that
you should also know) that Arsenic kills by competing with Phosphoric
acid in the Glycolytic pathway. It is actually a competitive inhibitor
that displaces phosphate from 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate forming
1-Arseno-3-phosphoglycerate which is a very unstable compound. Cutting
the long story short, you die.
Okay, there you have it,
10 World's Deadliest Poisons you will ever come across.Thanks for
reading, in case you wanted to use a lesser toxic poison to kill someone
before, now you know better. Please endeavour to share this with your
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