What is dart frog toxin, which is said to have been used to kill Alexei Navalny? | Poison

Epibatidine, the dart frog toxin that Britain says was used to kill Alexei Navalny, is about 100 times more potent than morphine.

This extremely toxic substance, similar to nicotine, was first derived from the genus Epipedobates, a poisonous frog native to northern South America, not found naturally in Russia.

Frogs that secrete the toxin on their skin include the brightly colored Anthony’s Poison Arrow Frog and the fantasy-like Poison Frog.

Researchers believe that frogs acquire it through their diet, because animals from different habitats showed different levels of the toxin and those raised in captivity did not.

Epibatidine has been studied as an analgesic and to relieve painful inflammatory conditions of the lungs, such as asthma and pulmonary fibrosis.

However, due to its toxicity, it is not used clinically.

Alastair Hay, emeritus professor of environmental toxicology at the University of Leeds, said epibatidine works by inhibiting nerve action by blocking nicotinic receptors in the central and peripheral nervous systems.

He added: “The effect of blocking these receptors is muscle paralysis and paralysis of the respiratory system.

“Thus, breathing is blocked and anyone poisoned dies of suffocation. »

Hay said the presence of the toxin in a person’s blood “suggests deliberate administration.”

He added: “The toxicity of epibatidine may even be increased by co-administration of certain other drugs and these combinations have been investigated.

“If epibatidine, a toxin, was indeed used to poison Alexei Navalny, this constitutes a violation of the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) and the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

“The Soviet Union was a co-sponsor of the BTWC. Russia is a signatory to both the BTWC and the CWC. If Russia used epibatidine to poison Mr. Navalny, it violated two treaties it swore to uphold.”

Epibatidine can be detected using a combination of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry.

Gas chromatography helps separate compounds of interest, and mass spectrometry breaks chemicals into fragments to create a unique fingerprint of the substance, which can then be identified.