10 Poisons And Their Horrifying Effects

We tend to think of poison as a Shakespearean agent of drama, torn from the pages of Agatha Christie novels. But the truth is, death is all around us, in neat little bottles under the kitchen sink, in our drinking water, and in our bloodstreams. Below are ten of the world’s most insidious poisons, some exotic and others frighteningly common.

10

Hydrogen Cyanide

Although it carries with it a terrifying stigma, cyanide has a rich and fruitful history. Some scientists even believe it may have been one of the chemicals responsible for producing life on earth. Today it is better known as an agent of death, the active ingredient in the Zyklon-B the Nazis used to exterminate the Jews in shower rooms. Cyanide is the chemical used as capital punishment in the gas chambers of the United States. Those who have come into contact with it describe it smelling sweetly of almonds. Cyanide kills by binding to the iron in our blood cells and choking them off, removing their ability to transfer oxygen throughout the body. Most states in the US have discontinued the use of the gas chamber as unnecessarily inhumane. Death can take several minutes and is often gruesome to witness, with the condemned flailing and drooling in an attempt to stave off death.

Animal Poisons with Amazingly Specific Purposes

The primal ballet of life and death is as present in nature now as it was millions of years ago. Every day, tiny wars are fought on billions of battlegrounds all across the earth as each species uses its own special adaptations to ensure its survival until the next sunrise. Sometimes individuals die, but each act of death strengthens the species as a whole, leaving only the strongest to carry on those unique survival traits to the ensuing generation. 



And sometimes those traits take on bizarrely specific forms, as is the case with these ten naturally occurring neurotoxins. A neurotoxin is a chemical that affects the nervous tissue—a lethal natural weapon that would violate every Geneva Convention of the animal kingdom—which is often created as a defensive or predatory mechanism. Beautiful in many ways, these neurotoxins have nevertheless adapted to one amazingly specific purpose — besides causing a horrifying and painful death, that is.

Each neurotoxin, having a rather obscure scientific name, will be listed instead by one of its notable effects.

10

Burst Lungs

Found in the Sydney Funnel Web Spider





Most neurotoxins work mainly by shutting down the nervous system in some way – but atracotoxin does the opposite. It hyper-stimulates the nervous system to the point of overload. As the toxin works its way through a victim’s body, it elevates blood pressure, eventually causing the millions of air sacs in the lungs to burst (pulmonary edema), a condition which causes you to effectively drown on dry land. 



And here’s the crazy part: Atracotoxin is harmless to just about every type of mammal, but it’s deadly in primates. Out of all the potential animals against which this spider would have to defend itself, it developed a neurotoxin that is specifically aimed towards one. Us. Well, also monkeys – but mostly us.



This specific neurotoxin is found in the Sydney funnel web spider, which has only been sighted in one city on earth: Sydney, Australia. It’s considered the most dangerous spider in the world because its venom (which is actually a cocktail of chemicals and neurotoxins) can kill a human in only 15 minutes. Fortunately we have an anti-venom, and there haven’t been any funnel web spider related deaths for about 30 years – but it’s yet another decent argument for changing Australia’s name to “That place where you’ll probably die.”



Alnwick Poison Garden

The Alnwick Poison Garden is one of the many public gardens attached to Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, England. The castle itself is the second largest in Great Britain. The Alnwick Poison Garden boasts some of the world's most dangerous plants, hence the name. Behind big black gates, the carefully curated garden contains about 100 varieties illegal narcotics including poppies, which are used to make opium, the poisonous Atropa belladonna (also known as deadly nightshade), Strychnos nux-vomica (used to make strychnine), Coca (from which cocaine is produced), hemlock (used to kill Socrates), cannabis and more.

Although the Poison Garden is a recent addition, the history of the Alnwick Gardens goes back to 1750, following centuries old tradition of botanical interest in poisonous and toxic plants. The gardens have a long history under the Dukes of Northumberland, but fell into disrepair after World War 2.

The current Duchess of Northumberland decided to revamp the gardens when she became mistress of Alnwick Castle. The project began around 2000, but she did not begin the Poison Garden until five years later. Inspired by the garden near Padua, Italy which was once used by the Medici's to find better ways to kill their enemies, the Duchess decided to build a garden that was filled with narcotic, poisonous and deadly plants. The initial design included some medicinal plants, but she had them removed to maintain the concept of the Poison Garden.