Hey guys, how are you doing? I hope you're doing well. In this entry I will talk a bit more about antivenin, and a more detailed explanation of how to get it to then produce antidotes for poisons. As I mentioned in my last post, a small quantity of a poison can be injected to a big animal to make it produce antivenin. Then this antivenin is injected to a victim to save him. It all sounds easy, but... How and where do we get the poison from to make the antidotes?
To treat snake bites, the first step is collecting the poison. It is very important to collect poison for the right snake. Sometimes you don't need a poison from exactly the same species of snake; poison from the subfamily is sometimes enough. Pit Vipers (Cottonmouth, Copperhead, Rattlesnakes etc.) is an example of a subfamily of snakes, one antidote produced from one of these will work for the rest of the subfamily. When collecting poison, the snake is forced to bite against a cloth covered glass jar. When the snake's fangs strike the cloth, the poison is released into the glass. This process is called "milking a snake". This poison is then sent to a lab. (Shorter)
In the lab, the poison is injected in small safe quantities into a sheep or a horse so it can produce the antibodies to protect it against the poison. Over the next 2 months, it is injected with increasing doses of poison, until it can resist doses that are even more hazardous than one that could've killed him (Before being adapted to poison). Blood is then extracted from the animal and centrifuged to separate white blood cells from red blood cells. The white blood cells, which contain the antibodies, are then sent to hospitals. But watch out!!! Before treating a victim with the antidote, it is important to test how his body reacts to the antidote. Some people react negatively to antibodies from animals, and even some are killed because of this and not the poison. (East Kentucky Power Cooperative)
Works Cited
East Kentucky Power Cooperative. How Antivenin is Made. n.d. 25 August 2011 <http://www.ekpc.coop/newgreenweb/naturenotes/notes/antivenin.htm>.
Shorter, C.M. Snake Antivenom. n.d. 25 August 2011 <http://www.tigerhomes.org/animal/snake-antivenom.cfm>.
What is poison? By poison, I understand that it is a substance that is very deadly or harmful to the human body when ingested or by touching it. A trait that I consider important about poisons, is that they not only cause a physical wound, but also affect our body's functions (It doesn't only cuts the skin like a knife, but it also interferes with the nervous system). According to google, a poison is "A substance that, when introduced into or absorbed by a living organism, causes death or injury, especially one that kills by rapid action even in a small quantity". (Google Inc,) For a very long time, humans have used poison to dispatch their foes. Socrates was executed in the year 399 B.C., by being forced to drink a cup of poison hemlock. The first person to be document to study poisons was the Kemite pharaoh Menes. His findings contributed to the writing of a papyrus dated circa 1553 B.C. , it contains 700
different drugs (including poisons) of animal, mineral or plant origin. (Clark)
Poison can also be helpful
This papyrus also includes another significant finding: the antidotes for the poisons that are listed in it. Some treatments were worthless. For example, whiskey was a common treatment for snakebites in the 19th century. In the 1920's, Brazilian researches proved it was worthless, and it actually sped up the poisoning process. This Brazilian researches also came up with a very smart method to fight the venom: fighting fire with fire. In other words: Fighting poison with poison. Researches realized that by introducing small amounts of poison to big animals like horses, the animal created antibodies called antivenin, which fights against the venom. Then the antivenin was extracted from the immunized animal's hemoglobin and then injected to a snakebite victim. Then the antivenin attached to the poison and prevented it from interfering with the human body's processes. (Clark)
Works Cited
Clark, Josh. ""Why would you take poison as medicine?"." 25 July 2008. HowStuffWorks.com. 2011 August 18 <<http://health.howstuffworks.com/medicine/modern/poison-as-medicine.htm>>.
Google Inc. Poison - Definition. n.d. 18 August 2011 <http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=poison+dictionary#pq=poison%20meaning&hl=en&sugexp=gsihc&cp=9&gs_id=11&xhr=t&q=poison+definition&qe=cG9pc29uIGRl&qesig=BNujU_7iohu3-DXSoqM0KA&pkc=AFgZ2tmJ_4d8sztlfVyDJDIsrm4QCKh9sV70ZcNGbzzG52ozPmtchRHrVY0Fa0QZgZiQZvCw>.
