Curare Research Paper

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Curare, also known scientifically as, Chondrodendron tomentosum is a substance which is bitter and grows on the stems and barks of some South American plants. Curare is known to paralyze the motor nerves. Traditionally, curare was used by South American Indians to poison their arrows by combining the curare obtained from plants and various poisons from animals and then mix everything up to make syrup like substance. The Indians then would coat the syrup on to their arrows and use the arrows to kill prey and later eat them. When the South American Indians eat the dead prey, they do not get poisoned because in order to get poisoned by curare, you need it to be in your blood stream. Once the curare is in your bloodstream it acts as a neuromuscular blocking agent, basically it disrupts the signals between nerve cell and muscle cells. First, curare begins to affect the muscles of the toes, ears, and eyes. After curare moves on to the muscles of the neck and limbs and finally it affects the muscles that help the lungs function, this induces …show more content…

The discovery of Curare dates back to seventeen-thirty five. French explorer Charles Marie de la Condamine, who spent couple of years in South America exploring, took samples of curare back to France. In the nineteenth century, doctors had tried to use curare as a muscle relaxant for the treatment of rabies, tetanus, and epilepsy but failed due to a number of reasons. In the eighteen-seventies, in England, curare was used to keep animals still during procedures but was later banished because of public outcry. The first successful use of curare was developed by Harold King in nineteen-thirty five, when he isolated the active principal of curare, tubocurarine. Daniele Bovet, a Swiss-Italian pharmacologist created an artificial curare because in nineteen-forty seven the side effects of curare were unknown. Bovet made the artificial curare known as

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