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The author is not a physician. The content on this website does not, and is not intended to constitute medical advice. It should not be relied upon when making medical decisions. It is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or other healthcare provider.

Poisons:

HF (Fluorine - reliably weird)

The series of Breaking Bad chemicals continues (spoilers inside). Previously: phosphine, mercury fulminate. Today: hydrogen fluoride....

Ricin (Ribosomes are important)

Lots of chatter in the news today about finding ricin in a Vegas hotel room....

Aflatoxin (You got mycotoxin in my peanut butter! You got peanut butter in my mycotoxin!)

Aflatoxin is a toxin produced by certain funguses that acts on the liver:...

Phosphine (Things get can get nasty as you go down a group)

Ammonia, or NH3, is a mildly toxic gas (but not that bad - you use it in metabolism). Go down one, though, and you get more lavishly toxic....

Oxalic Acid (The painful fate of that tasty antifreeze)

The previous entry on raspberry ketones got me thinking about supplements in general. For the most part they don't cause people problems - which is pretty remarkable, considering a lot of them do have real druglike molecules in them. Most...

Bongkrek Acid (Funny name, unfunny results)

In many parts of the world, what Westerners would call "meat alternatives" are the main source of protein. One such product is tempeh, made from soy. A particular variety, when contaminated with a particular bacterium, can become contaminated with a...

Lewisite (More good common names)

Lewisite is nasty stuff - it's a compound of arsenic with two labile chlorines. As I mentioned yesterday, BAL is its antidote....

Strychnine (Is for NMR lovers)

Strychnine is a well-known poison and detective novel trope with a moderately low LD50 (ca 10mg). You find it more often in NMRs these days....

Nitrobenzene (More toxic fragrance)

Nitrobenzene is a simple enough molecule. It smells just like benzaldehyde - it's really strikingly similar if you've smelled both. If you haven't, it's the artificial almond-cherry flavoring smell....

Cinnabar (Not delicious)

Cinnabar is an ore containing HgS, or mercury (II) sulfide:...

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