Salamander Alkaloids

Abstract

It has been known for a long time that the black and yellow spotted fire salamander (Salamandra maculosa Laur.) is venomous. The physician Laurentius found in 1768 that the skin gland secretion was the source of toxicity, and Zalesky in 1866 found that the venom has the character of an alkaloid. He isolated an amorphous base which he named samandarine ¹. Investigations on the toxicology of the salamander venom by Gessner indicated that it affects the central nervous system. Death occurs by a primary respiratory paralysis. The lethal dose of samandarine is: for the frog 0·019 g, for the mouse 0·0034 g, and for the rabbit 0·001 g/kg of weight². Salamander venom is toxic for all animals, for fishes as well as for amphibia, birds and mammalia. Even the salamander succumbs to its own venom if it enters the blood-stream¹.