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black mamba

Could Black Mamba Snake Venom Replace Morphine?

Posted on: October 9th, 2012

The venom from one of the world’s most venomous snakes could be the key to a new breed of painkiller, a new study says.

Pain-relieving compounds—called mambalgins—isolated from the venom of Africa’s black mamba snake are as strong as some opiates, including morphine, without the risk of respiratory distress and other side effects common with pain-reducing drugs.

“It’s remarkable that this was made possible from the deadly venom of one of the most venomous snakes,” said study leader Anne Baron, of France’s Institute of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology.

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  • Mike Stanley

    you won’t want to OD on that stuff…

  • Guest

    I’m sure plenty of job applicants will line up to collect it.

  • Rumplestilskin

    I can just see it now; “Employee at snake farm dies within minutes harvesting venom from world’s fastest and deadliest snakes, the Black Mamba”
    These snakes are the fastest on the ground and are one of the largest, averaging 10′ or more. This will be interesting how it plays out. To cover the replacement of morphine you will need farms with thousands of those large fast snakes……… Any volunteers ?????

  • mathis1689

    Sounds wild but who knows? People used to tell the Wright brothers that they were crazy and look how that turned out.