Re: Poisons

From: Andrew Raphael <raphael_at_research.canon.com.au>
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 21:16:26 +1000 (EST)


Kevin Rose <vladt_at_interaccess.com> writes:

>Unless you want somebody to be refining HCN in a basement somewhere

Kevin has unleashed the demon of mentioning natural poisons on a list where Australians are lurking. ;-)

	The cyanogenic glycosides in many plants including native or
	spotted fuchsia (Eremophila maculata) and native birdsfoot
	trefoil (Lotus australis) liberate cyanide when the plant
	tissue is damaged and kill insects, snails or slugs feeding on
	them.  The same process may kill domestic animals as well.

Crush some of that into a vegetable hot pot.

	Nervous system damage of a more severe kind in cattle enabled
	the rediscovery of a rare rainforest tree, Idiospermum
	australiense, in northern Queensland.  Its seeds were found in
	the stomach contents of cattle which had died rapidly after
	feeding beneath the trees in 1971.  The toxin responsible is
	unknown, but may be related to strychnine.

Since there isn't a bit of Glorantha that's an Australian analogue, this is sort of irrelevant, but I wanted to speak up on behalf of the efficacy of plant toxins. I'm sure there are similar plants in the ecosystems that do have Gloranthan analogues.

Now, let's not go into the Sydney funnel web spider, the western taipan, the blue-ringed octopus, the sea wasp, and so on. You will not find them in Glorantha. Lucky, those Gloranthans.

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