Toxicology and Biochemistry of Colubridae Venom

Abstract

Colubridae is a family of snakes that comprise more than fifty percent of all living snakes. As their fangs are located in the rear of the mouth, they are generally considered non poisonous. In the first part of this review, cases of envenomation by about fifteen kinds of colubridae are described. Notable clinical symptoms are edema, pain, blood coagulation and in some cases respiratory arrest. Relatively few studies have been carried out on these snakes as compared to other families such as Crotalidae, Elapidae and Viperidae. The toxicity of these snakes ranges from 0.071–33.00 mg/kg, indicating that some are extremely toxic while the others are not. The venoms from these snakes have been shown to contain proteolytic enzymes. Phospholipase A₂, phosphodiesterase and L-amino acid oxidase are some of the other enzymes present. The presence of a very interesting neurotoxic component has also been observed. Much more biochemical studies on this will be able to shed some light on evolutionary links between the various snake families.