Strychnine and liver

[rudiecantfail]

Hi,
I was looking for some informations about strychnine and I found a post on drugs-forum attesting it clears the liver.
Have you anymore informations about this ?
thanks.

 

[sekio]

It's a toxic, incredibly bitter glycine agonist which can cause convulsions and should be avoided in all cases.

Stick to milk thistle if you are worried about your liver. Drugs-forum is like Bizarro land and everything you read there you should take with several grains of salt...

 

[indelibleface]

Strychnine is a very toxic chemical that was used in the 19th and early 20th Century as a general stimulant, both for race horses as well as humans (believe it or not), usually for athletes as a performance enhancing drug. The effects are way too wildly unpredictable, though, so this kind of usage has all but been abandoned.

Strychnine poisoning leads to an incredibly painful and dramatic demise: massive full-body convulsions leading to death from exhaustion. There is no accepted way to use any real amount of strychnine and related alkaloids safely. Don't use it.

 

[rudiecantfail]

Thanks but I'm not looking for general toxicity informations.
Does strychnine clear the liver?

 

[23536]

strychnine induces various CYP450 isoforms and also enhances UDP glucoronosyltransferase, so it possibly will aid in detoxification from various substances.

NSFW:

J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 1994 Feb;268(2):1024-31.

Strychnine and brucine as the potent inducers of drug metabolizing enzymes in rat
liver: different profiles from phenobarbital on the induction of cytochrome P450
and UDP-glucuronosyltransferase.

Fujisaki H, Mise M, Ishii Y, Yamada H, Oguri K.

Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.

The inducing activities of two alkaloids, strychnine and brucine, on the hepatic
drug metabolizing enzymes were studied in rats. Administration of strychnine in
the drinking water to rats significantly increased the hepatic microsomal
activities of benzphetamine N-demethylation, strychnine 2-hydroxylation and
testosterone hydroxylations at positions 16 alpha and 16 beta. These results
together with that of immunostaining of microsomal proteins revealed that
strychnine is a potent inducer of CYP2B1 and 2B2. The comparable induction of
CYP2B1/2 was observed by brucine treatment with less toxic effect. Although this
inducer increased CYP2B cytochrome P450s (P450s) to the maximum levels after 4
consecutive days of administration, the maximal increase by strychnine was
attained after 3 days of administration. Immunoblotting experiment suggested that
significant proteolysis of CYP2B1 occurs during treatment by strychnine and
brucine. These alkaloids exhibited no ability to induce the activities of
testosterone hydroxylations at positions 2 alpha, 6 beta and 7 alpha,
benzo[a]pyrene 3-hydroxylation and aniline hydroxylation. In addition to the
CYP2B P450, strychnine and brucine induced glutathione S-transferase toward
1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene and UDP-glucuronosyltransferase toward 4-nitrophenol.
On the other hand, the glucuronidations of 4-hydroxybiphenyl and morphine were
not enhanced by alkaloid treatments. These results indicated that strychnine and
brucine cause phenobarbital-like induction of the P450 enzyme, but show a
different profile from phenobarbital in the induction of
UDP-glucuronosyltransferase.


PMID: 7906730 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

There's little point to the cure being worse than the affliction though...

 

[sekio]

There are no drugs that "clear the liver" so stop looking. Strychnine is not going to help.
Even if it does induce liver enzymes you should not be taking it due to the very high toxicity risk.

 

[ex-amine]

i've taken strychnine as a stimulant (very low dosis0 , but is definetly a poison in high doses.
for liver cleansing try : milk thistle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_thistle