Therapeutic Use of Animal Venoms

Abstract

Throughout history there were many attempts to use animal venoms in medicine. Mythology abounds with references to venomous animals, which were frequently attribute of gods or medical tools. For example, rattlesnakes were the attributed of the Aztec goddess Coatlicue (Mother of Gods). The staffs of Indian medicine men are frequently decorated with snakes, as was the serpent-entwined staff of Asklepios, God of Medicine in Ancient Greece. The Greeks and Romans had houses in which Esculap adders, Elaphe longissima, were held in honor of Asklepios. This non-venomous snake was brought by the Romans from the Mediterranean Sea to other parts of their empire for this purpose, and even today populations of Elaphe longissima can be found in some places in Austria as well as near the town of Schlangenbad (close to Wiesbaden) in Germany: They date from these times.