Natural Toxins in Thailand

Abstract

Natural toxins are one of the national health problems of Thailand that is often overlooked. Based on the available data from reported cases with clinical relevance, animal toxins constitute 98 per cent, and plant toxins comprise only 2 per cent. Among the animal toxin poisoning poisonous snake envenomation forms the imajority of the problem with some sporadic reports of poisoning from insect and marine toxins. In general, scientific interest in toxinology is still few. There is growing attention to the area of pathophysiology of snake envenomation with respect to hemodynamics and organ pathology. Marine toxins and plant toxins begin to attract more scientific interest.