What’s Your Poison ?

Strychnine is a highly toxic, colourless, bitter, crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents, when inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through the eyes or mouth, causes poisoning which results in muscular convulsions and eventually death through asphyxia. The symptoms of poisoning in humans are generally similar to those as in other animals, because the mechanism of action is apparently similar across species. The toxicity of strychnine in humans is not ethically studied, so most information known comes from cases of strychnine poisoning, both unintentional and deliberate. And because strychnine poisoning produces some of the most dramatic and painful symptoms of any known toxic reaction, it is often portrayed in literature and film including authors Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle.