Alkaloids of neotropical poison frogs (Dendrobatidae).

Abstract

Poisons for arrows and blow darts have been derived from a wide spectrum of sources in both the plant and animal kingdoms. One unique source of such poisons is the skin secretion of certain brightly colored frogs native to the rain forests of Western Colombia. The Noanama and Embera Indians of this region undoubtedly used secretions from these frogs to poison blow darts even in pre-Colombian times, but the first account of dart envenomation with poison frogs did not appear until 1825 (67). Secretions from a single frog were purported to be sufficient for envenomation of at least twenty blow darts [(67,214,221,270,271); see (176) for review of early literature]. Only three species of neotropical frogs can be stated with assurance to have been used to poison blow darts (191). All of these frogs occur only in western Colombia where the practice of poisoning blow darts with frog secretions still persists today in spite of the inroads of civilization. The poison-dart frog (Phyllobates bicolor) from the headwaters of the Rio San Juan is called “neara” by the Indians, while lower in the same drainage the poison-dart frog (Phyllobates aurotaenia) is called “kokoi”. Envenomation of darts with the most toxic species (Phyllobates terribilis) from the Rio Saija is done simply by drawing the tip of the dart across the back of a living frog while the other two species are impaled in order to elicit a copious flow of skin secretions.