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Curare is a compound substance, containing two alkaloids: curine, C18H19NO3, which affects the muscle fibers of the heart, and curarine, C19H26N2O2, which affects the motor nerve endings in voluntary muscles.
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Curarine is able to bind to and prevent the opening of a the acetylcholine receptor channel so that acetylcholine, released from the presynaptic nerve terminal (end-plate), cannot stimulate the muscle and so causes paralysis.
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Curare is obtained from a South American woody vine, Strychnos toxifera and is used as an arrow poison by some Native American tribes of South America. If introduced to a wound (taken orally it is relatively inactive) curare rapidly causes loss of voluntary muscular action through paralysis and, usually, death through arrest of the muscles of respiration.
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The first useful synthetic form of curare was developed after World War II by the Italian pharmacologist Daniel Bovet. Subsequently several other curare-like drugs were synthesized for medical use. Such compounds are used widely as muscle relaxants during surgical procedures and in therapy for such diseases as rabies and tetanus.
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