Prussic acid, widely known as hydrogen cyanide (HCN), has a rich history and unique properties as one of the most notorious compounds of...

Aqua regia, Latin for “royal water,” is a powerful acidic solution known to dissolve noble metals like gold and platinum. It's used in...

Albertus Magnus ( c.  1200 - 1280) is a German Dominican friar, philosopher, scientist, and bishop, considered one of the greatest...

Mad Hatter Disease is also called erethism, erethismus mercurialis or mad hatter syndrome. Caused by progressive mercury poisoning it's a...

Serket is the ancient Egyptian goddess of healing relating to venomous stings of scorpions and bites of snakes. She often wears a...

Wolfsbane, monk's hood (Aconitum) delivers a lethal dose of poison. In the ancient world, poison plays a vital part, from death by elixir...

Chun Yuyan (Chunyu Yan) is a Chinese court official in the 1st century BCE, during the Han Dynasty. As obstetrician and gynecologist to...

Vermilion (vermillion) is a brilliant red, orange-red or scarlet pigment obtained by grinding cinnabar (HgS), a sulfur and mercury ore. A...

Cinnabar or mercury sulfide (HgS) is a rock composed of mercury (Hg) and sulfur (S). Historically it's used to make vermillion or scarlet...

Chinese alchemical elixir poisoning in ancient China is generally a death of the rich. Poisoning occurs over time or swiftly, caused by...

Cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) is an Old World evergreen species of the cherry family. Often mistaken for edible bay laurel, Prunus...

Veratrum album (white hellebore, false hellebore) is a poisonous plant in the family Melanthiaceae. Used in ancient natural medicine for...

Black hellebore (Helleborus niger) or Christmas Rose is a plant of the Helleborus sub-family, used in folk medicine and lethal poisons....

Tanning hides is practiced in the ancient world since c. 7000 BCE, in the Indus Valley site of Mehgarh. By 2500 BCE, Sumerians of...

Mad honey comes from a group of plant-produced neurotoxins named after Leucothoe grayana, a plant native to Japan. Grayanotoxins can...

Mercury is the only metal to be liquid at room temperature, giving it magic and mystical properties, and the name quicksilver. This...

Death Cap Mushrooms (Amanita phalloides) are deadly poisons of assassination and accident. Native to Europe, death caps are naturalized...

Mother of notorious Nero and sister to Caligula, Agrippina the Younger is one of the most influential women in Roman history. Born in a...