What’s the buzz?

What’s the buzz? I just got stung, multiply by wasps while out walking the dog. Anyone who’s been injected with venom by Vespula vulgaris will know all about the effects of histamine on pain and inflammatory response. Moreover, if you’re atopic, as I am, you may also know about the little critters’ effects on allergy.

Thankfully, while suffering some shortness of breath, a lot of sweating (partly down to running away from the attack site), and a touch of the shakes after receiving about a dozen such stings today, I didn’t collapse into anaphylactic shock. I had some oral antihistamine, took a couple of drags of salbutamol inhaler and dowsed the numerous stings with vinegar (contains acetic acid) in the vain hope of neutralising the basic histamine.

It’s only August, aren’t these little b*st*rds supposed to stay calm till the autumn.

Incidentally, you can visit a chemicalized version of this page to look up histamine and any other chemicals mentioned in the post.

Monkshood, Devil’s helmet, and wolfsbane

This post gives me an excuse to mention a new free service for chemists called Chemicalize.org. Details later, meanwhile, my family and I saw lots of different flora and fauna on our recent trip to The Gower Peninsula. My son snapped this beautiful, but deadly, photo of monkshood – aconitum, also known as aconite, wolfsbane, leopard’s bane, women’s bane, Devil’s helmet or blue rocket. It is a member of the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) and there are over 250 species of Aconitum.

Aconite has long been used in the traditional medicine of Asia (India, China). In Ayurveda the herb is used to increase pitta (fire, bile) dosha and to enhance penetration in small doses. Western medicine recognises its toxicity, although it was used until the middle of the 20th Century, as pharmaceutical alternatives to its active ingredients were found.

Poisoning can occur simply by picking the leaves without wearing gloves. The aconitine toxin is absorbed easily through the skin and the sap of just eleven picked leaves will cause cardiac symptoms for a couple of hours.

Aconitine is a potent neurotoxin that blocks tetrodotoxin-sensitive sodium channels. You can check out the Chemicalize.org information on this compound here. But, much more exciting is that you can view a framed version of this (or any) page using Chemicalize simply by prefixing the URL with “http://www.chemicalize.org/?q=” i.e.

http://www.chemicalize.org/?q=http://imagingstorm.co.uk/monkshood-devils-helmet-wolfsbane.html. Clicking on aconitine displays a pop-up box with the structure that links to the Chemicalize.page.