The adverse effect of toxic plant constituent found in India: Forensic approach

Abstract

There are various plant originated active chemical constituents which are toxicologically significant includes proteins, phenolic compounds, alkaloids, glycosides, and resins, etc. Out of these huge numbers of plants in the environment, few cause acute toxicity, severe illness if it is consumed. The diversity of active chemical constituent in plants is quite amazing. Natural poisons are those chemicals that kill without violence, mysteriously, secretly destroy life. Some of the common plant families and its toxic constituent are easily available like Euphorbiaceae (cleistanthin, toxalbumin, curcin), Solanaceae (capsicin, atropine, dutarin), Apocyanacae (uscharin, odolotoxin, neriodorin), Leguminosae (cytisine sparteine), Fabaceae (abrasine, diaminopropionic acid), Papaveraceae (narcotine, dihydrosangunarine). The natural poisons are also used by criminals for stupefying people that facilitate robbery, murder and other cases. These natural poisons are readily accessible and very cheap, so skilful poisoners prefer this toxic plant for a crime. In this work author revised literature related to the classification of plant’s chemical constituents, its lethal dose and metabolic effects on the body. It has been thoroughly received and collected from journals and textbooks to make this review useful to all specialists of different discipline and it also has significant forensic importance.