Curare

Modified: 2024-05-31

• Curare, a South American poison, has its effect because it inhibits the action of an enzyme, cholinesterase.
  • The effects of curare are muscular and respiratory paralysis.
  • You may infer then, that the voluntary muscles and the lungs are controlled by the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, abbreviated ACh.
  • Curare does not affect neurons that are not controlled by ACh.
  • Curare kills by causing all of the neurons that control breathing to be stuck open.
  • Many of the nerve agents that the allied armed forces were concerned about during the Gulf War work in a similar fashion to curare.

• The movie, "The Emerald Forest," a true story about a child abducted and raised by Brazilian Indians, contains a scene in which the child and his adoptive father go monkey hunting.
  • They find a monkey, and carefully prepare a blowgun dart by dipping it in the curare, which they carry on a pouch around their necks.
  • They shoot the monkey, and hit it on the foot; then they wait.
  • As the poison takes effect, the monkey stiffens, then falls to the ground.
  • The two hunters then walk up to the monkey and kill it.
  • Presumably, the monkey is able to see them as they walk up and then hit it on the head.
  • But, because it is paralyzed cannot escape.
• If care is taken to keep the lungs working by artificial means, then curare will not be fatal.
  • Before the widespread use of anesthetics, curare was routinely used in surgery.
  • Patients were kept alive by artificial lungs until the curare dose wore off.
  • The curare was used not as anesthetic but as a means of immobilizing the patient while the surgery took place.
  • Yes, it was painful but the patients could not move.