THE MORACEAE-BASED DART POISONS OF SOUTH-AMERICA - CARDIAC-GLYCOSIDES OF MAQUIRA AND NAUCLEOPSIS SPECIES

The use of cardenolide-containing Moraceae in the dart poisons of South America is reviewed. Those prepared by the Choco Indians of western Colombia - called niaara or kieratchi - have probably been made from the latex of Naucleopsis amara and N. glabra. In Ecuador, the Colorado Indians used N. chiguila, while the Coaiquer Indians still derive a poison from the latex of N. naga and the Cayapa Indians occasionally make use of a blowgun poison, hambi, which probably also comes from a Naucleopsis species. The Kabori (Rio Uneiuxi Maku) Indians of north-western Brazil may have utilized Maquira coriacea, but a more recent collection documents N. mello-barretoi latex as a source of their poison. The Tikuna Indians of western Brazil included leaves and bark of N. stipularis in one of their poisons. The principal cardiac glycosides present in Maquira species are strophanthidin-based and the main ones occurring in Naucleopsis species are antiarigenin- as well as strophanthidin-based. The structures of two new glycosides, isolated from dart-poison samples, have been established as strophanthidin beta-D-glucomethylosido-D-alloside and beta-D-digitoxosido-D-alloside. The former is a major component of pakurin, the crystalline glycoside mixture prepared by Santesson in 1928 from a Choco Indian poison.