Thread by @NaturesPoisons

It's Toxicology Thursday!
Let's talk about Tinyatoxin. It's got a funny name, which is why I chose it, but there's nothing tiny about the pain it produces...it brings the heat, literally.

On the chemistry side of things, it's got a super weird structure. That tri-phenoxyethyl ether thingy is odd (that's the top part, with the three oxygens (O's) I'm talking about). I don't know if I've seen a structure with one of those before, and I've seen a lot of structures.

On the botany side, tinyatoxin is produced in the succulent plant Euphorbia poissonii, which is native to Nigeria and west Africa. If you cut it open it exudes a milky latex that contains, you guessed it, tinyatoxin.

So what's so special about tinyatoxin, other than it's funky chemical structure and funny name? It's about 400 times more potent than pure capsaicin. You know about capsaicin already, it's the chemical responsible for the "pain" of hot chili peppers.

Capsicin, and tinyatoxin, bind to and activate (i.e. an agonist) vanilloid receptor subtype 1 (TRPV1). Yes, it's called the vanilloid receptor. That's what is causing pain in your mouth and skin when in contact with hot chili peppers, activation of TRPV1 via capsaicin.

We measure pepper "heat" using Scoville heat units (SHU). The higher the SHU, the more heat it brings to the table, or your mouth. Whatever.
Bell pepper - 20
Jalapeno - 5,000
Habanero - 200,000
Carolina Reaper - 2 million
Capsaicin - 15 million
Tinyatoxin - 6 BILLION

So yeah, tinyatoxin is super pungent. It would hurt. A lot. Thankfully no one is trying to eat those Euphorbia poissonii plants. Some farmers though use it as border fencing, which makes sense. Here's a picture of that plant - I forgot earlier:

So if a person or animal is trying to get through this natural fence of fire and accidentally cut open the plant, any latex that oozes out and gets on the skin would burn like Hades. You ever cut hot peppers then rub your eye or go to the bathroom? It hurts. This would be worse.

Are there any applications for this? Yeah, you could make the Mother of All Pepper Sprays (MOAPS). It'd be strong enough to bring down a Demogorgon. I shouldn't give people ideas though. Ignore this tweet.

A more legit application? The United States Department of Health and Human Services has an issued patent for adding tinyatoxin to bird seed. Yes, bird seed. Please ask me why . . . . thank you, anonymous person in the back, bouncing between Twitter and playing Candy Crush.

You see, birds don't have those fancy vanilloid receptors I mentioned earlier, but mammals do. So if you want to put out bird seed and keep squirrels off of it, add chili peppers, or capsaicin, or...tinyatoxin to it. Birds are happy, squirrels not so much.

It's an evolutionary thing I guess. It allows birds to happily eat peppers then poop them out - including the seeds - far away. It's a way of spreading the genetic information (in the form of seeds) of chili peppers.

So we know that tinyatoxin is super potent and capable of burning a hole in you, but is there anything stronger? Yes, that would be resiniferatoxin - it's about 2-3 times stronger than tinyatoxin, but honestly? Its name is boring, so tinyatoxin it is. Happy Tox Thursday!