CURARE

kyoorärˈē, any of a variety of substances originally used as arrow poisons by Native South Americans in hunting and in warfare. The main active substance of curare, tubocurarine, is an alkaloid extracted from Chondodendron tomentosum, Strychnos toxifera, and other plant species. The poison produces muscle paralysis by interfering with the transmission of nerve impulses at the receptor sites of all skeletal muscle. Muscles with many nerves, such as eye muscles, are affected first. In recent years curare has been put to medical use. When given in small quantities with general anesthesia, especially in abdominal surgery, curare ensures the desired relaxation of muscle tissue with a minimal concentration of the anesthetic, lessening the possibilities of anesthesia-induced complications. Curare is also used to relieve spastic paralysis, to treat some mental disorders, and to induce muscle relaxation for the setting of fractures.

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The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright© 2004, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. All rights reserved.

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Questia Books and Articles on: Curare
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books on: Curare  - 569 results

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1.
Science, Technology, and Society: An Encyclopedia
Book by Sal Restivo; Oxford University Press, 2005
Subjects: Science--Social Aspects--Encyclopedias, Technological Innovations--Social Aspects--Encyclopedias, Technology--Social Aspects--Encyclopedias
The preparation of curare is in the expertise of knowledgeable healers and hunters. The curare solution is coated onto small hunting arrows...Strychnos toxifera. The poisonous nature of curare is due to the biological actions of its alkaloids...
2.
The War of the Soups and the Sparks: The Discovery of Neurotransmitters and the Dispute over How Nerves Communicate
Book by Elliot S. Valenstein; Columbia University Press, 2005
Subjects: Neural Transmission--History, Neurotransmitters--History
...demonstrated that an an- imal injected with curare could be kept alive, although only by...experiments, Bernard was able to show that curare neither paralyzed the muscle nor blocked...immersed the sciatic nerve in a bath of curare solution, but left its point of attachment...
3.
The Subtle Beast: Snakes, from Myth to Medicine
Book by André Ménez; Taylor & Francis, 2003
Subjects: Poisonous Snakes--Venom, Serpents--Mythology, Snakes
...including large mammals, poisoned with curare are rapidly paralysed and hence easy to...Bernard found that, to be effective, curare had to be injected into the bloodstream...causing paralysis. He poisoned frogs with curare and observed that an electrical excitation...
4.
The Structure and Function of Muscle
Book by G. H. Bourne; Academic Press, 1960
Subjects: Muscles
...the structural barrier is intact. 2. Curare The permeability barrier explains the limitation of the action of curare to the motor end-plate, as was first...seem to be the active principle of curare and curare-like compounds. During...
5.
Cultural History of Plants
Book by Sir Ghillean Prance, Mark Nesbitt; Routledge, 2004
Subjects: Crops--History
...Knowledge about the preparation and uses of curare and similar poisons increased within the...foreigners. Different methods of hunting with curare continued to evolve, including the use...administer the poison. As a hunting poison, curare does not cause death immediately. It...
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journal articles on: Curare  - 54 results

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1.
Anesthetizing the Public Conscience: Lethal Injection and Animal Euthanasia
Journal article by Ty Alper; Fordham Urban Law Journal, Vol. 35, 2008
Subjects: Animal welfare--Standards, Capital punishment--Laws, regulations and rules, Euthanasia--Methods, Execution by lethal injection--Laws, regulations and rules, Pancuronium--Usage, Veterinarians--Ethical aspects
...communities. I. THE PROBLEM WITH CURARE "The drug curare is never used as an anesthetic...pain after administration and a curare-like paralysis of respiration...veterinary experts were concerned with curares long association with conscious...
2.
"Receptive Substances": John Newport Langley (1852-1925) and His Path to a Receptor Theory of Drug Action
Journal article by Andreas-Holger Maehle; Medical History, Vol. 48, 2004
Subjects: John Newport Langley
...slowing effect could still be produced after curare had been administered, which was then...heart, based on experiments in which curare appeared to prevent jaborandis slowing...muscle cells. Intravenous injection of curare abolished the nicotine-induced tonic...
3.
Drug Use and Abuse
Journal article by Jean-Pierre Changeux; Daedalus, Vol. 127, 1998
Subjects: Altered states of consciousness--Physiological aspects, Drug abuse--Physiological aspects, Drug utilization--Physiological aspects
...with the aim of localizing the effect of curare, the toxic substance of the poisoned...that allowed him to demonstrate that "curare blocks the communication between peripheral...on the muscle of the fowl showed that curare antagonizes the excitatory action of nicotine...
4.
Shock Therapy in Danish Psychiatry
Journal article by Jesper Vaczy Kragh; Medical History, Vol. 54, 2010
...risk was not greatly reduced. News that curare could tame seizures in convulsive therapy...Nebraska psychiatrist Abram Bennett had used curare for the first time in 1940 as premedication...In Denmark, the first experiment with curare took place in 1948, but it was only used...
5.
Motor Movement Matters: the Flexible Abstractness of Inner Speech
Journal article by Gary M. Oppenheim, Gary S. Dell; Memory & Cognition, Vol. 38, 2010
Subjects: Cognition & reasoning, Language, Medical imaging, Studies, Theory
...Abolishing any trace of articulation through curare-induced total paralysis (requiring...we report an experiment that (without curare) elucidates the relationship between...Similarly, in a modern analogue to the curare experiment, localized magnetic interference...
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magazine articles on: Curare  - 25 results

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1.
Back to Our Roots
Magazine article by Katie Rodgers; Drug Topics, Vol. 139, January 9, 1995
Subjects: Conservation, Natural resources, Peru, Pharmaceuticals, R&D, Rainforests, United States
...should be revisited. One such drug is curare, the Amerindian arrow poison that gave...relaxant tubocurarine. "Even though curare is being replaced by synthetics, there are many species of curare that havent been looked at, and they...
2.
Medicinal Plant Research Leads Scientists to Rain Forests
Magazine article by Diane Jukofsky; Drug Topics, Vol. 135, April 22, 1991
Subjects: Eli Lilly & Co, Forests, Horticulture, Pharmaceutical industry, R&D, Rain, SmithKline Beecham, United States
...tubocurarine, flourishes. The Rayas Indians used curare as a lethal arrow poison. Today, curare agents have several uses. For instance, theyre...synthesized. Physostigmine, the antidote to curare, is derived from west African Calabar beans...
3.
Production Slate
Magazine article by Andrew O. Thompson; American Cinematographer, Vol. 78, August 1997
...a mixture of exotic plants known as curare- is generally a secret recipe that varies...the concoction and then left to dry. Curare remains toxic for at least 100 years...Fortunately for Merrill, he was spared curare infection. The Amazon crew carted two...
4.
Geopeople
Magazine article; Geographical, Vol. 72, June 2000
Subjects: Banerji, Gargi--Interviews, Geographers--Conduct of life, Waterton, Charles--Conduct of life, Women conservationists--Conduct of life
...contributions to science was the introduction of curare poison to Europe Who was he? An explorer...taxidermy and imported large amounts of `curare poison from South America, believing it would cure rabies. Curare is now used extensively in modern medicine...
5.
An Adventure of Historic Measures
Magazine article by David Taylor; Americas (English Edition), December 1998
Subjects: Earth--Research, South America--Discovery, exploration, etc.
...of that route. Along the way they noted how Amazonians used curare as poison, how they tapped an amazing latex from rubber trees...for the cause of inoculation, and experimented with rubber, curare, and quinine. His journal, describing Amazonian knowledge...
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newspaper articles on: Curare  - 24 results

       More newspaper Results: 1-10 11-20 21-24 >>  
 
1.
One Man's Poison
Newspaper article; The Mail on Sunday (London, England), March 20, 2005
Subjects: Books--Book reviews
...us through the history of that poison - curare - which centuries later provided vital...life. So what was - is - so awful about curare? The answer is that the poison, extracted...artificial respiration and the dose of curare is carefully measured, it neednt be fatal...
2.
So What's Your Poison? ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS
Newspaper article; The Daily Mail (London, England), April 7, 2005
...falls out of the tree. These people use curare, which they obtain by crushing and boiling...arrow tips. The active ingredient of curare is tubocurarine, which interferes with...leading to death. Luckily for the hunters, curare is very poorly absorbed from the digestive...
3.
Professor Thomas Cecil Gray
Newspaper article; Liverpool Echo (Liverpool, England), February 6, 2008
...the tentative use of the muscle relaxant curare by Harold Griffiths and others in Canada...and Gray with which to experiment. The curare was forthcoming and the eventual result...and Halton were advocating the use of curare to provide complete paralysis of the patient...
4.
OBITUARY: Cecil Gray
Newspaper article; Daily Post (Liverpool, England), January 30, 2008
Subjects: Gray, Cecil--Death of
...whose introduction and refinement of the South American poison curare, used with deadly effect by native bowmen, would lessen the...Liverpool, working closely with Dr John Halton on the refinement of curare, already used in a less advanced form in Canada. By relaxing...
5.
An Amazon Adventure: Following Flow of River of Life Deep into the Mind
Newspaper article by James P. Lucier; The Washington Times, February 6, 1997
...when many uses involve compounds of different plants? Or when curare, the poison for blow darts, is not just a multiple compound, but one that works only in the bloodstream? You can take curare by mouth without effect - unless the mouth has open lesions...
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encyclopedia articles on: Curare  - 6 results

       More encyclopedia Results: 1-6 >>  
 
1.
Curare
Encyclopedia article; The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2009
CURARE kyoorar e, any of a variety of substances...in warfare. The main active substance of curare, tubocurarine, is an alkaloid extracted...muscles, are affected first. In recent years curare has been put to medical use. When given...
2.
Alkaloid
Encyclopedia article; The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2009
...poisons, have physiological effects that render them valuable as medicines. For example, curarine, found in the deadly extract curare , is a powerful muscle relaxant; atropine is used to dilate the pupils of the eyes; and physostigmine is a specific for certain...
3.
Acetylcholine
Encyclopedia article; The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2009
...quickly broken into acetate and choline, which pass back to the first cell to be recycled into acetylcholine again. The poison curare acts by blocking the transmission of acetylcholine. Some nerve gases operate by preventing the breakdown of acetylcholine causing...
4.
Bovet, Daniele
Encyclopedia article; The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2009
...in Rome. He won the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in developing antihistamines, sulfa drugs, and curare derivatives and other muscle relaxants for use in surgery. He also became known for studies of the effects of mental illness...
5.
Logania
Encyclopedia article; The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2009
...species ( nux-vomica native to S Asia, is the commercial source). Several tropical American species are ingredients of curare arrow poisons, which have yielded important medicines. Logania is classified in the division Magnoliophyta , class Magnoliopsida...
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