Curare-Actions of Erythrina Americana

Abstract

The great scarcity of active curare prompted an investigation of Erythrina americana, which has been reported by Altamirano, Arzac-Behnken, and Ramirez and Rivero to possess paralytic actions typical of curare. According to Altamirano, the paralytic and anticonvulsant actions are powerful. The active constituent appears to be an alkaloid, erythroidine, an emetic action being ascribed to erythroresin. Unfortunately, however, details of Altamirano's work are lacking, only an abstract being available to me. Arzac-Behnken claims to have confirmed the curare-like action in a few animals, but without proof. Poisoned animals do not recover from the paralysis, even when given artificial respiration, and pulmonary congestion and subacute nephritis are produced, according to Arzac-Behnken. Ramirez and Rivero report chemical analysis of the drug, and motor nerve paralysis in frogs by chronaxie determinations. This is about the extent of the pharmacologic literature on the drug. Therefore, a complete pharmacodynamic study was planned to assess the validity of the claims, and, if confirmed, the possibilities for the drug. The results obtained are sufficiently encouraging to justify this preliminary report. The product used was a liquid alcoholic extract of the seeds, containing 60% alcohol, so that 1 cc. represented 130 mg. of the crude drug. This was diluted with an equal volume of physiological salt solution (0.9% NaCl) before injection. A total of 76 animals of different species was used.