These are 10 common poisons used in suicide or kill people . Univeristy of sulaimani / school of pharmacy

1. Bryar R.R.Ali Russ
Univesity of Sulaimani
School of Pharmacy
Common Poisons Used to Kill People

2. Many things in this world are available for people to use as a safety
mechanism but killing has always been the fool proof choice which is
often used by human beings as their ultimate option. It has been
millennia since people learned how to eliminate the threat but the
methods have been improvising over and over again.
Poison is without a doubt one of the most effective of the methods. If we
look at our history, we see that using snake poison to kill a person or to
defeat kingdoms and countries was quite often but there are a few
poisons which are deadliest and can kill within a matter of minutes.

3. Arsenic has been called “The King of Poisons”, for its discreetness and
potency – it was virtually undetectable, so it was very often used either
as a murder weapon or as a mystery story element. But that’s until the
Marsh test came and signalled the presence of this poison in water,
food and the like. However, this king of poisons has taken many famous
lives: Napoleon Bonaparte, George the 3rd of England and Simon
Bolivar to name a few. On another note, arsenic, like belladonna, was
used by the Victorians for cosmetic reasons. A couple of drops of the
stuff made a woman’s complexion white and pale.
Most common poisons used :
#1 Arsenic

4. The Botulinum toxin causes Botulism, a fatal condition if not treated
immediately. It involves muscle paralysis, eventually leading to the paralysis
of the respiratory system and, consequently, death. The bacteria enter the
body through open wounds or by ingesting contaminated food. By the way,
botulinum toxin is the same stuff used for Botox injections!
#2 Botulinum Toxin

5. it is found in a great variety of substances like almonds, apple
seeds, apricot kernel, tobacco smoke, insecticides, pesticides and
the list goes on. Murder in this case can be blamed on a household
accident, such as ingestion of pesticide – a fatal dose of cyanide for
humans is 1.5 mg per kilogram of body weight. Secondly, it’s a rapid
killer: depending on the dose, death occurs within 1 to 15 minutes.
Also, in its gaseous form – hydrogen cyanide – it was the agent
used by Nazi Germany for mass murders in gas chambers during
the Holocaust.
#3 Cyanide

6. There are three forms of mercury which are extremely
dangerous. Elemental mercury is the one you can find in
glass thermometers, it’s not harmful if touched, but lethal if
inhaled. Inorganic mercury is used to make batteries, and is
deadly only when ingested. And finally, organic mercury is
found in fish, such as tuna and swordfish (consumption
should be limited to 170g per week), but can be potentially
deadly over long periods of time. A famous death caused
by mercury is that of Amadeus Mozart, who was given
mercury pills to treat his syphilis.
#4 Mercury

7. Polonium is a radioactive poison, a slow killer with no
cure. One gram of vaporised polonium can kill about 1.5
million people in just a couple of months. The most
famous case of polonium poisoning is that of ex-Russian
spy Alexander Litvinenko. Polonium was found in his tea
cup – a dose 200 times higher than the median lethal
dose in case of ingestion. He died in three weeks.
#5 Polonium

8. This substance is found in two marine creatures – the blue-
ringed octopus and the puffer fish. However, the octopus is the
most dangerous, because it purposely injects its venom, killing it
in minutes. It carries enough venom to kill 26 human adults
within minutes and the bites are often painless, so many victims
realize they have been bitten only when paralysis sets in. On the
other hand, the puffer fish is only lethal if you want to eat it, but
if it is well prepared, meaning the venom is taken out, the only
thing that’s left is the adrenaline of eating something which
could kill you.
#6 Tetrodotoxin

9. This one is a slow killer – a man-made slow killer! But this is
exactly what makes it all the more dangerous. Absorption of
doses as low as 0.1ml have proven fatal; however,
symptoms of poisoning start showing after months of initial
exposure, which is definitely too late for any kind of
treatment. In 1996, a chemistry professor at Dartmouth
College, New Hampshire, spilled a drop or two of the poison
on her gloved hand – dimethylmercury went through the
latex glove, symptoms appeared four months later and ten
months later, she died.
#7 Dimethyl Mercury

10. This was a favorite of the ladies! The name of this plant is
derived from Italian and means beautiful woman. That’s
because it was used in the middle-ages for cosmetic
purposes – diluted eye-drops dilated the pupils, making
the women more seductive (or so they thought). Also, if
gently rubbed on their checks, it would create a reddish
color, what today would be known as blush! This plant
seems innocent enough, right? Well, actually, if ingested, a
single leaf is lethal and that’s why it was used to make
poison-tipped arrows. The berries of this plant are the
most dangerous – consumption of ten of the attractive-
looking berries is fatal.
#8 Belladonna

11. Aconite comes from the plant monkshood. Also known as
wolfsbane, aconite leaves only one post-mortem sign, that of
asphyxia, as it causes arrhythmic heart function which leads to
suffocation. Poisoning can occur even after touching the leaves
of the plant without wearing gloves as it is very rapidly and
easily absorbed. Because of its untraceable nature it has been a
popular one with the “get away with murder” crowd.
Reportedly, it has a particularly famous casualty. The emperor
Claudius is said to have been poisoned by his wife, Agrippina,
using aconite in a plate of mushrooms.
#9 Aconite

12. Hemlock or Conium is a highly toxic flowering plant
indigenous to Europe and South Africa. It was a popular
one with the ancient Greeks, who used it to kill off their
prisoners. For an adult, the ingestion of 100mg of
conium or about 8 leaves of the plant is fatal – death
comes in the form of paralysis, your mind is wide awake,
but your body doesn’t respond and eventually the
respiratory system shuts down. Probably the most
famous hemlock poisoning is that of Greek philosopher,
Socrates. Condemned to death for impiety in 399 BC, he
was given a very concentrated infusion of hemlock.
#10 Hemlock

13. “But in the end one needs more courage to live than to kill himself.”
- Albert Camus
Please get away from this poisons and don’t try them…