Forget cyanide, it is the poison of detective novels

London in the late 19th century was a place full of crimes, and the Sakuranuma Villa murder case was one of the footnotes. The owner of the villa, Sholto, was found dead in his room, and the housekeeper saw his strange face through the hole in the door: his teeth were unnaturally exposed, and his bloodless face showed a terrible grin, half hidden and half visible in the moonlight.

Image source: 1984 TV series "Sherlock Holmes"

Coincidentally, during the First World War, at Styles Manor in Essex, the head of the family, Mrs. Inglethorp, suddenly had violent convulsions and tremors one night. Severe pain ran through her body. Her body became stiff, with her head and feet pressed against the bed, forming a terrible reverse arch, and she eventually died in a forced convulsion.

Image source: 1991 TV series Poirot

Of course, these two horrific cases are not real events, they are from the detective novels "The Sign of Four" and "The Mysterious Affair at Styles". In addition to bringing readers the famous detectives Sherlock Holmes and Poirot, these two novels also have a common hidden protagonist - strychnine. Without this legendary poison, the golden age of detective novels would lack a lot of quality.

01

Who is the sacred turtle?

You may feel at a loss when it comes to the difficult name "Strychnine", but we can at least simply infer that it is an alkaloid extracted from a plant called "Strychnine". Since it contains the word "Strychnine", it must be an alien species. Strychnine is native to India, Vietnam, Myanmar and other Southeast Asian regions. Because the tree looks like the native plant Strychnine in southern China, it is named "Strychnine".

Strychnos nux-vomica L. is a plant of the genus Strychnos in the family Loganaceae. It has another well-known name, Strychnos nux-vomica L.

Strychnos nux vomica

Image source: lakpura.com

As a plant, Strychnos nux vomica is a tree that can grow up to 13 meters. Its grassy leaves are nearly broadly ovate, and its fruit is an orange spherical berry with a diameter of about 10 cm. When you peel it open, you will see three or five disc-shaped seeds covered with silver hairs, with one side slightly concave. Doesn't it look delicious?

Nux vomica fruit and seeds

Image source: pinterest.co.uk

Nux vomica seeds

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STOP!!

This is the highly poisonous strychnine!

Mature Strychnine contains 1.5%-5% of toxic alkaloids, but the highly toxic strychnine accounts for less than half, and the other half is strychnine and others. Some articles confuse strychnine and brucine. Although their toxicity is similar, the activity and toxicity of strychnine are much weaker than strychnine.

They also have different English scientific names. Strychnine is often transliterated as "Strychnine" and appears in Western medical books, while Brucine is relatively unknown. Its use as a chronic poison was recorded in "The Count of Monte Cristo".

02

Why do detective novels love it?

The fact that strychnine can become the poison center of detective novels is closely related to its mechanism of action. First of all, it is extremely toxic, with a lethal dose of only 5 mg/kg.

Cyanide, considered the "king of poisons", is actually more toxic. Its lethal dose is similar to that of arsenic. The lethal dose of cyanide for adults is 0.5-3.5 mg/kg.

If an adult takes half a dime-sized amount of cyanide powder orally, it can be fatal. You can feel it. Image source: Internet

Since cyanide is more toxic, why do detective novels prefer strychnine?

This is because detective novels require drama, and the poisoning reaction of strychnine is full of drama!

The poisoning mechanism of strychnine is that it can antagonize the glycine and acetylcholine required for the binding of motor neuron surface receptors, thereby acting quickly and directly on the central nervous system, causing extreme muscle spasms. It can arouse the reflex function of the spinal cord, affect the respiratory center and vascular motor center of the medulla oblongata, and enhance the function of the sensory center of the cerebral cortex.

In simple terms:

Poisoning reaction of strychnine

The poisoned person will first feel cramps in the masseter and neck muscles and difficulty swallowing, followed by tachypnea, dilated pupils, increased blood pressure, and extreme contraction of muscles throughout the body.

The "Compendium of Materia Medica" summarizes it as "If a bird is poisoned by it, it will convulse and die; if a dog is poisoned by it, it will die of excruciating pain. If it is taken by mistake, it will cause cramps in the limbs."

In addition to "limb cramps", the trunk will also form "opisthotonos" due to the simultaneous contraction of the flexor and extensor muscles: the body is rigidly bent backward, the head involuntarily tilts back, the abdomen protrudes forward, and the body is like a taut bow.

Wow, how can the dramatic effect not be maximized!

In fact, strychnine was used as a poison in ancient China. It was called "qianji medicine" in ancient China. Qianji was originally a bow-shaped wooden strip used to pull the weaving thread when weaving. It was named after this bow-shaped wooden strip, which was obviously a reference to the poisoning symptoms of opisthotonos.

Qianji drug is one of the "three major poisons in the palace" along with Gelsemium elegans and Hedinghong. It is the first choice of poison given by the emperor in the palace. The most famous person who died from Qianji drug was Li Yu, the last emperor of the Tang Dynasty. There are also many concubines who were killed by Qianji drug in TV dramas.

In the TV series Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace, Wei Yanwan was forced to take the drug and died. However, the drama did not show the poisoning effect of opisthotonos, probably because they thought it would not look good.

In addition to opisthotonos, the muscles of the neck and face will also show their presence. They will become uncontrollable and begin to spasm. The muscles at the corners of the poisoned person's mouth will also tighten, forming a weird bitter smile.

Detective novelists love this kind of expression!!! This is a perfect material for detailed description (to make up the word count), and the grids that are crawled out are all royalties!

03

The past and present of strychnine

Because of its strong medicinal effects and unique poisoning symptoms, strychnine has been a common drug in traditional medicine long before it became the protagonist of literary works. In ancient Europe, it was also often used as a stimulant for the central nervous system, and Olympic athletes used strychnine to improve their performance.

Although strychnine has a long history in human history, its chemical structure and toxicology were not confirmed until modern times. The famous organic chemist Robert Burns Woodward made important contributions to the synthesis of strychnine. He discovered the indole core structure in the strychnine molecule, and then invented the synthesis method of isostrychnine, and then synthesized strychnine under alkaline conditions.

In 1993, Larry E. Overman of the University of California, Irvine, achieved the asymmetric synthesis of strychnine, increasing the yield by tens of thousands of times. Since then, research on the synthesis of strychnine has made more and more breakthroughs, and this poison has become one of the protagonists in the history of organic chemistry.

Today, strychnine and strychnine have almost disappeared from the stage of history as medicines, and are only used as rat and bird poisons in a few occasions. Their status as a regular in detective novels has also been lost to newer, more deadly and hidden poisons.

But, as long as you study chemistry, you can't escape it!