image by: Oregon Department of Agriculture

HWN Suggests

There’s Toxicity, And There’s Toxicity

A baby-aspirin-size amount of powdered toxin is enough to make the global supply of Botox for a year. That little bit is derived from a larger primary source, which is locked down somewhere in the continental U.S.—no one who isn’t on a carefully guarded list of government and company officials knows exactly where. Occasionally (the company won’t say how frequently), some of the toxin (the company won’t say how much) is shipped in secrecy to the lab in Irvine for research. Even less frequently, a bit of the toxin is transported by private jet, with guards aboard, to the plant in Ireland.

Now, all drugs have biological activity, or they wouldn't be drugs. But some of them are definitely…

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Biotoxins may cause death or severe incapacitation at relatively low exposure levels. They are produced by living organisms, but they do not self-replicate. Predominantly they are not man-made but are of natural origin; however, biological toxins are increasingly being synthesized by modern methods. They differ from chemical toxins in that they do not pose a vapor hazard and only a few (e.g., mycotoxins) are dermally active.

When Edible Plants Turn Their Defenses On Us

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Resources

Biotoxins

Biotoxins are substances which are both toxic and have a biological origin. They come in many forms and can be produced by nearly every type of living organism: there are mycotoxins (made by fungi), zootoxins (made by animals) and phytotoxins (made by plants).

CDC

Specific chemical ggents...

ScienceDirect

Biotoxins are chemical substances produced by bacteria, plants, and fungi that serve as a biological defense and poison, which protects the toxin-producer from being consumed.