SINCE Krishnan (1953) reported the occurrence of —S—S— bonds in the cuticle of Palamnaeus swammerdami, a keen interest has been evinced in the cuticle of arachnids in general. Even earlier, Lafon (1943) noted the presence of over 2-85% of sulphur in the cuticle of Limulus and suggested that the cuticular proteins were similar in this respect to the keratinous type of proteins of the vertebrates...

OBJECTIVE This study was conducted to investigate the amino-acid compositions of pharmacopuncture extracts taken from the body and from the tail of Buthus martensii Karsch, which are frequently prescribed in Oriental medicine. METHODS Amino acids in hot water and 70% ethanol extracts taken from the scorpion's whole body and from its tail were screened by using high performance liquid chromato...

Martentoxin, a novel K+-channel-specific peptide has been purified and characterized from the venom of the East-Asian scorpion (Buthus martensi Karsch). The whole cDNA precursor sequence suggested that martentoxin was composed of 37 residues with a unique sequence compared with other scorpion neurotoxins. The genomic DNA of martentoxin showed an additional intron situated unexpectedly in the 5'...

background: to explore the oral absorption of scorpion venom an elisa were designed in this study. scorpions and their venom were been used for centuries as medical treatments in traditional medicine. the oral administration of drug referred as the convenient way, as there was not any publication about gastro-intestinal absorption of scorpion venom; this experiment checked oral absorption of me...

This study aimed to evaluate the clinical, histopathological and hematological effects of Mesobuthus eupeus venom on chicken organs. Adult chickens were subcutaneously injected with five doses of M. eupeus venom (0.5, 2, 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg; four chickens per each dose). Symptoms were recorded during the experiment and blood samples were collected for hematological analysis. Moreover, a complete...

Scorpion toxins are important pharmacological tools for probing the physiological roles of ion channels which are involved in many physiological processes and as such have significant therapeutic potential. The discovery of new scorpion toxins with different specificities and affinities is needed to further characterize the physiology of ion channels. In this regard, a new short polypeptide cal...

Khuzestan province has the highest rate of scorpion sting in Iran. This is a study to identify these scorpions in Khuzestan. In this study 418 scorpions were kept in the ethyl alcohol 70%, each being studied by stereomicroscopy and diagnosis key separately. 120 (28.7%) Androctonus crassicauda, 104 (24.9%) Hemiscorpius lepturus, 91 (21.7%) Mesobuthus eupeus, 86 (20.65%) Compsobuthus matthiesseni...

This brief review summarizes the studies in systematics and zoogeography of European scorpions. The current “splitting” trend in scorpion taxonomy is only a reasonable response to the former “lumping.” Our better understanding of scorpion systematics became possible due to the availability of new morphological characters and molecular techniques, as well as of new material. Many taxa and local ...