Is it a crime to take taurine?

Recently, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau reported that a Shanghai International Studies University student named Yin Moumou put a foreign object into a girl's coffee cup when she left her seat in the school library. After taking a sip, the girl noticed something strange in the coffee, poured out the remaining coffee, and reported it to the school security department. After a hospital examination, no physical abnormalities were found in the girl. The police later found Yin Moumou, who admitted that he put half a taurine effervescent tablet in the girl's coffee cup. The effervescent tablet was purchased online. The relevant evidence has been sent to the professional and technical department of the Municipal Bureau for inspection and related investigations.

How to determine whether such cases are crimes? What is the role of taurine? Let's talk about it today!

01. How to determine whether it constitutes a crime?

How to determine whether it is a crime? This matter needs to be judged based on both subjective and scientific cognition. Luo Xiang gave two typical examples:

1. There is no real basis for the claim that adding sugar and beer can kill people - it doesn't count

Someone saw on the Internet that adding sugar to beer can poison people, so Zhang San added sugar to the beer, and the other person was fine.

Is it a crime? Luo Xiang concluded: No.

2. There is a real basis for the murder of a person with poison and the poison was replaced - count

Zhang San was going to buy poison to kill someone, but he bought the wrong one. The boss replaced the poison with sugar. In this case, no one was killed.

Is it a crime? Luo Xiang's conclusion: Yes

So in this matter, we have to see whether the person's subjective idea of ​​throwing foreign objects into the mind and the objective foreign objects have any influence.

What was the original intention of the boys from Shanghai International Studies University throwing foreign objects into the cups of the girls? Was the foreign object a fantasy (such as sugar or beer) or was it based on objective evidence (such as poison to kill someone, although it was replaced)?

02. What is taurine used for?

Let's get back to the foreign body injection incident. What exactly does taurine do? For example, it is said online that taurine has a so-called "aphrodisiac" effect. Is this true or false? Is there any scientific basis for this?

There are indeed some studies on the "aphrodisiac effect" of taurine:

For example, this article "Research Progress on the Effects of Taurine on Reproduction of Female Mammals" [1]

In this review article, the author points out that taurine plays a role in animal estrus and ovulation. After looking through the research, the idea is this.

The regulation of female reproductive hormones is generally as follows:

The hypothalamus regulates the release of pituitary luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) by synthesizing and secreting gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), thereby regulating the synthesis of ovarian estrogen (E2) and ovulation, and maintaining the changes in the estrus cycle. Taurine is widely expressed in the reproductive system of female mammals and is involved in the regulation of the above process.

The research cited in this content is the following one. After reading it, I found that the research was conducted on rats [2].

The results showed that the taurine administration group (T2) could significantly increase the serum total PRL (serum prolactin) level in female mammals during proestrus, estrus and estrus.

The others are similar, so the authors concluded that taurine can stimulate the secretion of GnRH, PRL, FSH, LH, E2 and P in female rats. The effect of taurine on female reproduction is mainly achieved by regulating the activity of hormones related to the hypothalamus-pituitary-ovarian axis.

Therefore, from this perspective, taurine can indeed stimulate the hormone levels of females and play the so-called "aphrodisiac" role.

Of course, this is not the only study.

In another study on mouse reproduction, taurine was also studied [3]. The researchers used HPLC to detect the changes in total taurine in mouse serum during estrus, as shown in the figure below.

The study found that taurine showed periodic changes during the estrus of mice. The gene expression level of CSD, the key rate-limiting enzyme responsible for taurine synthesis, also showed periodic changes.

Therefore, the authors believe that taurine itself has a relevant effect on estrus in mice.

After some research, I found that there are many similar studies that believe that taurine has an effect on female mammals, but I have not found any research on humans. Therefore, to be precise, it is unknown whether taurine has an aphrodisiac effect on humans.

03. What do you think of this person’s behavior?

So, what do you think of this man's behavior? Maybe we need to ask this man's subjective opinion.

After all, there are similar cases, such as the use of animal hormones in people, and the poisoning case of a civil servant in Rushan, Shandong. The civil servant was dissatisfied with the appointment of cadres, so he bought sow estrus hormones online and "poisoned" the office. It once became the most bizarre poisoning case in history! Looking back now, I think it is really horrifying. This is the first time I have heard of this unique "poisoning" method. But now there is another "poisoning" case. It seems to have really confirmed the saying on the Internet: "Rogues are not scary, but hooligans with culture are scary."

[1] Ma Hui, Yan Chengzhi. Research progress on the effects of taurine on the reproduction of female mammals[J]. Heilongjiang Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, 2022(04):24-27.

[2] Mu T , Yang J , Li Z , et al. Effect of Taurine on Reproductive Hormone Secretion in Female Rats[J]. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, 2015, 803:449-456.

[3] Li Xinqiang. Study on the expression and function of cysteine ​​sulfenic acid decarboxylase (CSD) in mouse ovary[D]. China Agricultural University, 2015.