Word: potion
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...later the same day, three scientists from Laennec Hospital in Paris reported that they had found a drug treatment that produced "a spectacular biological response" in AIDS patients. Such a response, said Dr. Philippe Even, who headed the team, "has never been observed before." The name of this magical potion was unexpectedly familiar: cyclosporine...
...Hong Kong is currently concocting a new drink dubbed "Son of Bowl," a 16-ounce potion that will replace the original favorite, said William Lee, the restaurant's general manager...
Though the poisoning of a Pope may seem farfetched today, legend has it that at least one Pope-Alexander VI-died of poisoning, from a fatal potion that was intended for some Cardinals. That was in 1503, and the rumors have not let up yet. Veteran Vatican observers recall the stories of how Pope Pius X died of poisoning in 1914. Then there were the whispers about how poison killed Leo XIII in 1903, Pius VIII...
Douyon sent a quantity of the zombie potion to the U.S., where it came to Davis' attention. An expert on tribal uses of plants, Davis flew to Haiti and began collecting his own samples. "The principal ingredients are consistent in three of four localities," he reports in his paper. Several plants containing skin irritants are used, a charred human bone is thrown in just for show, but the active ingredients are a large New World toad (Bufo marinus) and one or more species of puffer fish. The toad, Davis reports, is a "veritable chemical factory," containing hallucinogens, powerful anesthetics...
Davis has sent samples of the zombie potion to laboratories in Europe and the U.S., where in one experiment it induced a trancelike state in rats. Such research in the past led to the discovery of curare, an arrow poison from the Amazon now used to paralyze muscles during surgery. Tetrodotoxin may also one day find its place in the medical armamentarium. "People who have lived in the tropics for centuries have learned things about plants and animals that we have not fathomed," says Richard Evan Schultes, head of Harvard's renowned Botanical Museum. "We must not leave...