Public Health Burden of Botulinum Neurotoxicity: A Research Perspective to Evaluate the Antitoxin Efficacy of Thearubigin Extract of Black Tea

Botulinum toxin (BoNT), being the most poisonous substance poses a great threat to global public health as a deadly bio-weapon. BoNT/A, BoNT/B and BoNT/E serotype toxicity cause flaccid paralysis in human by blocking neurotransmitter activity. Thearubigin, a black tea extract is found to be effective in neutralizing BoNT when experimented with animal models. This hypothesis opens a new frontier of Biological Science to understand the antitoxin property of thearubigin and applying the same in large scale to prevent BoNT neurotoxicity. Individualized dosage recommendation of thearubigin extract thus represents a natural antitoxin therapy in managing severe botulism in humans.