Question

Strychnine which is of medicinal importance is essentially….
A) An antibiotic
B) Antimalarial drug
C) An alkaloid from Strychnos nux-vomica
D) Antihypertensive drug

Answer 1

Strychnine is a profoundly harmful, toxic, colourless, bitter, crystalline alkaloid utilized as a pesticide, especially for killing vertebrates, for example, birds and rodents. Strychnine, when inhaled, gulped, or consumed through the eyes or mouth, causes toxicity which brings about muscular spasms and death through asphyxia. The most widely recognized source is from the seeds of the Strychnos nux-vomica tree.

Complete answer:
Strychnine is a neurotoxin which goes about as an antagonist of glycine and acetylcholine receptors. It fundamentally influences the motor nerve fibre in the spinal cord which control muscle constriction
Glycine acts basically as an agonist of the glycine receptor, which is a ligand-gated chloride divert in neurons situated in the spinal cord and in the brain. This chloride channel will permit the adversely charged chloride ions into the neuron, causing a hyperpolarization which pushes the membrane potential further from the edge.

Strychnine is an adversary of glycine; it binds noncovalently to a similar receptor, forestalling the inhibitory impacts of glycine on the postsynaptic neuron. Thus, action potentials are set off with lower levels of neurotransmitters. At the point when the inhibitory signs are forestalled, the motor neurons are all the more effortlessly activated and the victim has spastic muscle contraction, bringing about death by asphyxiation.

Therefore, the correct answer for this question is C, i.e. An alkaloid from Strychnos nux-vomica.

Note: S. nux-vomica seeds are commonly effective as a toxin just when they are crushed or bitten prior to gulping because the pericarp is very hard and inedible; harming side effects may in this manner not show up if the seeds are ingested entirety.