Interesting question: If you ingest venom, is it still "venomous", or is it now "poisonous" since it is not injected by the animal?
I'm no chemist, but I believe venom is essentially a poison. It's just usually injected by an animal, so it's venomous, not poisonous.
I'm not a bio major.....My understanding is that venom is a neurotoxin and when injected into your bloodstream it travels through your blood (it probably crosses the blood-brain barrier: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood-brain_barrier) and causes neurological issues which effect your respiratory system, etc.
I assume just digesting something reduces the chance of the neurotoxin from crossing the blood-brain barrier. And my understanding is the alcohol breaks down the proteins that make the neurotoxin harmful to humans thereby eliminating any of the side effects.
Also, death by Hemotoxin is apparently slow and painful vs. death by Neurotoxin.
Damn nature, you scary!
Also, some interesting facts.....
-Rattlesnakes are not immune to rattlesnake venom. I wonder (or would not be surprised) if the same is true to other species of snakes.
And again....my belief is that you can ingest most snake venom on the basis that digestion does not result in the venom going through you blood the same way. Numerous sites say you can eat rattlesnake without worrying about the venom. So soaking the thing in alcohol can only help as I am 99% sure the alcohol breaks down the proteins that make the venom a neurotoxin.
Do save the bottle though, in case you need to take it with you to the hospital.
Snake venom is highly modified saliva[citation needed] that is produced by special glands of certain species of snakes. The gland which secretes the zootoxin is a modification of the parotid salivary gland of other vertebrates, and is usually situated on each side of the head below and behind the eye, invested in a muscular sheath. It is provided with a large alveoli in which the venom is stored before being conveyed by a duct to the base of the channelled or tubular fang through which it is ejected. Snake venom is a combination of many different proteins and enzymes. Many of these proteins are harmless to humans, but some are toxins.
Note that snake venoms are generally not dangerous when ingested, and are therefore not technically poisons.[citation needed]
So snake venom is not a poison, but some snakes have toxins that could be harmful when ingested.
Anyway, I figure I can supplement my 3 tangenty posts with some fucked up shit!
I confess the source is not dynamite but all-in-all I think evidence is on gekko's side here...which is that if he did drink this concoction he would probably live to tell about it.
I was suddenly wondering, is every poison also a venom? Because if it's harmful when you eat it, it's probably harmful in any way it gets into your body.
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It may have other powers than just making you vanish when you wish to... The One Ring