Question: What Is the Most Poisonous Chemical Compound?
Answer: When you get right down to it, everything is poisonous. Water will kill you if you drink too much of it. Oxygen is a deadly poison, yet we need it to live. However, there are some chemicals that we are better off not encountering. Here's a list of the most poisonous chemicals known. Keep in mind, toxicity varies from one species to another (i.e., what may be poisonous for a mouse may be more/less poisonous to a human) and within a species (i.e., age, sex, genetics all affect susceptibility to a toxin). I've listed the name of the toxin, its source, approximate average lethal dose per kilogram of body weight (LD50), and the species.
- tetanus
1 nanogram/kg
mouse, human - botulinal neurotoxin (bacteria)
1 nanogram/kg
mouse, human - shigella (bacteria)
1 nanogram/kg
monkey, human - palytoxin (coral)
60 nanogram/kg
dog (iv) - diphtheria (bacteria)
100 nanogram/kg
human - ricin (from castor beans)
1 microgram/kg
human - aflatoxins (mold which grows on nuts, legumes, seeds)
1-784 micrograms, depending on type of aflatoxin
duckling (oral) - shigella (bacteria)
1 microgram/kg
mouse - saxitoxin (shellfish)
3-5 micrograms
mouse (iv), about 50x higher dose orally - tetrodotoxin (fugu pufferfish)
10 micrograms
mouse (ip) - diphtheria (bacteria)
1.6 milligram/kg
mouse
Sources:
Merck Index, 11th Ed., S. Budavari et al. (editors), Merck (1989) ISBN 911910-28-X
McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, 2nd Ed., McGraw Hill (1989) ISBN 0-07-045512-0, CD-ROM
