During a speech to the Berlin Press Association on September 13, 1981, U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig made a dramatic allegation. He accused the Soviet Union of supplying mycotoxins— poisonous compounds synthesized by fungi—to its Vietnamese and Laotian Communist allies for military use against resistance forces in Laos and Cambodia (Kampuchea), and of employing the same agents in comba...

Aposematic (warning) coloration is a common defense in plants, although it was largely ignored before 2001. The fact that many aposematic animals use both plant-based pigments and sequestered poisonous molecules to become aposematic emphasizes the absurdity of neglecting the aposematic nature of so many plants. Similar to the situation in animals, aposematic coloration in plants is commonly yel...

South Africa is blessed with one of the richest floras in the world, which--not surprisingly--includes many poisonous plants. Theiler in the founding years believed that plants could be involved in the aetiologies of many of the then unexplained conditions of stock, such as gousiekte and geeldikkop. His subsequent investigations of plant poisonings largely laid the foundation for the future Sec...

Ergot contains numerous poisonous substances (alkaloids), which upon ingestion by animals may lead to poor growth rate, decreased feed consumption and poor feed efficiency. The effect will depend on the age or physiological stage of the animal, and the amount consumed. Results obtained in this study indicate that the consumption of diets containing more than 0.10% high alkaloid ergot by weanlin...

The unripe fruits of certain species are red. Some of these species disperse their seeds by wind (Nerium oleander, Anabasis articulata), others by adhering to animals with their spines (Emex spinosa) or prickles (Hedysarum spinosissimum). Certainly neither type uses red coloration as advertisement to attract the seed dispersing agents. Fleshy-fruited species (Rhamnus alaternus, Rubus sanguineus...

was probably one of those simpler vegetable protein bases (amines), produced by enzyme action, both before and during the germinating processes. In feeding experiments on animals this substance was shown to be water soluble, differentiating it from the poisonous alkaloids of plants. As it was also soluble in chloroform, Stockman was able to extract it by the methods used for extracting alkaloid...

Envenomation and poisoning by terrestrial animals (both vertebrate and invertebrate) are a significant economic problem and health risk for domestic animals in Australia. Australian snakes are some of the most venomous animals in the world and bees, wasps, ants, paralysis ticks, and cane toads are also present as part of the venomous and poisonous fauna. The diagnosis and treatment of envenomat...

1. Oxygen in concentrations of over 70 per cent of an atmosphere is poisonous to dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs and mice. 2. The poisonous effects manifest themselves in drowsiness, anorexia, loss of weight, increasing dyspnea, cyanosis and death from oxygen want. 3. The cause of oxygen want is a destructive lesion of the lungs. 4. The lesion may be characterized grossly as an hemorrhagic edema. Mi...