Anisodamine as an effective drug to treat snakebites.

Abstract

Anisodamine is a natural alkaloid drug isolated from the plant Anisodus tanguticus growing in western China. The chemical structure and pharmacological action are just like the cholinergic receptor blocking agents atropine or scopolamine. The specific characteristic of the drug is being able to relieve the dangerous situation of microcirculatory failure, especially in case of DIC or renal failure. The prognosis of the patients will be quite good. Another characteristic of the drug is that no serious toxic reaction occurs even in successive doses given intravenously up to 500 mg a day. This is about fifty times greater than a common dose of 10 mg. Since we begin with the drug as a routine medication for the symptomatic treatment of renal failure, DIC bleeding, and microcirculatory failure, we should say that the specific antivenin and anisodamine are two treasure drugs for snakebites.