Interest and information in the field of medical toxicology has grown rapidly, but there has never been a concise, authoritative reference focused on the subjects of natural substances, chemical and physical toxins, drugs of abuse, and pharmaceutical overdoses. Medical Toxicology of Natural Substances finally gives you an easily accessible resource for vital toxicological information on foods, plants, and animals in key areas in the natural environment.

While systems such as GMP and HACCP assure a high standard of food quality, foodborne poisonings still pose a serious hazard to the consumer's health. The lack of knowledge among some producers and consumers regarding the risks and benefits related to food makes it imperative to provide updated information in order to improve food safety. To

The Bad Bug was created from the materials assembled at the FDA website of the same name. This handbook provides basic facts regarding foodborne pathogenic microorganisms and natural toxins. It brings together in one place information from the Food & Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service, and the National Institutes of Health.

The Bad Bug Book 2nd Edition, released in 2012, provides current information about the major known agents that cause foodborne illness.Each chapter in this book is about a pathogen—a bacterium, virus, or parasite—or a natural toxin that can contaminate food and cause illness. The book contains scientific and technical information about the major pathogens that cause these kinds of illnesses.A separate “consumer box” in each chapter provides non-technical information, in everyday language. The boxes describe plainly what can make you sick and, more important, how to prevent it.The information provided in this handbook is abbreviated and general in nature, and is intended for practical use. It is not intended to be a comprehensive scientific or clinical reference.The Bad Bug Book is published by the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

From beach encounters, aquaculture perils, and processed-food poisoning to snake bites and biological warfare, natural toxins seem never to be far from the public's sight. A better understanding of toxins in terms of their origin, structure, structure-function relation ships, mechanism of action, and detection and diagnosis is of utmost importance to human and animal food safety, nutrition, and health. In addition, it is now clear that many of the toxins can be used as scientific tools to explore the molecular mechanism of several biological processes, be it a mechanism involved in the function of membrane channels, exocytosis, or cytotoxicity. Several of the natural toxins have also been approved as therapeutic drugs, which has made them of interest to several pharmaceutical companies. For example, botulinum neurotoxins, which have been used in studies in the field of neurobiology, have also been used directly as therapeutic drugs against several neuromus cular diseases, such as strabismus and blepherospasm. Toxins in combination with modem biotechnological approaches are also being investigated for their potential use against certain deadly medical problems. For example, a combination of plant toxin ricin and antibodies is being developed for the treatment of tumors. The great potential of natural toxins has attracted scientists of varying backgrounds-pure chemists to cancer biologists-to the study of fundamental aspects of the actions of these toxins.

This comprehensive treatise offers an in-depth discussion of natural toxicants in plants, emphasizing their effects as defenses against herbivory. Coevolution of plants and her-bivores are covered with a detailed treatment of toxicant metabolism and systemic effects in mammalian tissues. Con-sideration of the economic importance of plant toxins, modi-fication by plant breeding, management of toxico-sis, and toxicant problems in various geographic areas are in-cluded. Each volume offers an extensive description of chemistry, biosynthesis, analysis, distribution in plants, metabolism in mam-mals and insects, and practical problems in humans and livestock.

Food safety is a complex issue that has an impact on all segments of society, from the general public to government, industry, and academia. The second edition of the Bad Bug Book, published by the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides current information about the major known agents that cause foodborne illness. The information provided in this handbook is abbreviated and general in nature, and is intended for practical use. It is not intended to be a comprehensive scientific or clinical reference. Under the laws administered by FDA, a food is adulterated if it contains (1) a poisonous or otherwise harmful substance that is not an inherent natural constituent of the food itself, in an amount that poses a reasonable possibility of injury to health, or (2) a substance that is an inherent natural constituent of the food itself; is not the result of environmental, agricultural, industrial...

This book presents refereed and edited papers from the 6th International Symposium on Poisonous Plants, held in Scotland in August 2001. It covers a range of topics from plant biochemistry to toxic effects in animals (particularly grazing farmed animals) and humans. The contents include the evolution of antinutrients and toxins in plants, biomedical applications of toxins in plants, isolation, identification and effects of plant and fungal toxins and the effect of plant toxins on aversion to plants in animal diets.

Natural Toxins presents the proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on Animal, Plant and Microbial Toxins, held in Uppsala, Sweden on August 1979. This book presents the methods for detection, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases that natural toxins cause. Organized into 17 parts encompassing 84 chapters, this compilation of papers begins with an overview of the embryonic development, structure, and function of the compound oral glands of venomous and non-venomous snakes in comparison with other exocrine glands. This text then examines the occupational hazards of snakebites in both agriculture and fishing in the Asian areas. Other chapters consider the toxicity and immunological relationships among venoms of several Agkistrodon species. This book discusses as well the characterization of cytotoxins and their mechanisms of action upon model lipid and cell membrane systems. The final chapter deals with neurotoxins as tools for the characterization of molecular components involved in nerve impulse propagation. This book is a valuable resource for biochemists, toxicologists, and pharmacologists.