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Tubocurarine chloride is an alkaloid
Alkaloid

Alkaloids are naturally occurring chemical compounds containing base nitrogen atoms. The name derives from the word alkaline and was used to describe any nitrogen-containing base....
 of the benzylisoquinoline
Benzylisoquinoline

1-Benzylisoquinoline is the structural backbone of many alkaloids with a wide variety of structures, including papaverine, noscapine, codeine, morphine, apomorphine, berberine, protopine and tubocurarine....
 type. It is an antagonist
Receptor antagonist

A receptor antagonist is a type of receptor ligand or drug that does not provoke a biological response itself upon binding to a Receptor , but blocks or dampens agonist-mediated responses....
 of nicotinic neuromuscular acetylcholine receptors that is used to paralyse patients undergoing anaesthesia.

s one of the chemicals that can be obtained from curare
Curare

Curare [koo rah ree] is a common name for various arrow poisons originating from South America. The three main types of curare are:* tube curarine ....
, itself an extract of Chondrodendron tomentosum, a plant found in South America
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
n jungles which is used as a source of arrow poison. Native Indians hunting animals with this poison were able to eat the animal's contaminated flesh without being affected by the toxin because tubocurarine cannot easily cross mucous membranes and is thus inactive orally.

Medically, first used in 1912.






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Tubocurarine chloride is an alkaloid
Alkaloid

Alkaloids are naturally occurring chemical compounds containing base nitrogen atoms. The name derives from the word alkaline and was used to describe any nitrogen-containing base....
 of the benzylisoquinoline
Benzylisoquinoline

1-Benzylisoquinoline is the structural backbone of many alkaloids with a wide variety of structures, including papaverine, noscapine, codeine, morphine, apomorphine, berberine, protopine and tubocurarine....
 type. It is an antagonist
Receptor antagonist

A receptor antagonist is a type of receptor ligand or drug that does not provoke a biological response itself upon binding to a Receptor , but blocks or dampens agonist-mediated responses....
 of nicotinic neuromuscular acetylcholine receptors that is used to paralyse patients undergoing anaesthesia.

History

It is one of the chemicals that can be obtained from curare
Curare

Curare [koo rah ree] is a common name for various arrow poisons originating from South America. The three main types of curare are:* tube curarine ....
, itself an extract of Chondrodendron tomentosum, a plant found in South America
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
n jungles which is used as a source of arrow poison. Native Indians hunting animals with this poison were able to eat the animal's contaminated flesh without being affected by the toxin because tubocurarine cannot easily cross mucous membranes and is thus inactive orally.

Medically, first used in 1912. Introduced in anaesthesia in 1942. The correct chemical structure was only elucidated circa 1970, even though the plant had been known since the Spanish Conquest.

The word curare comes from the South American Indian name for the arrow poison: "ourare". Presumably the initial syllable was pronounced with a heavy glottal stroke
Glottal stop

The glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound which is used in many Speech communication languages....
. Tubocurarine is so called because the plant samples containing it were first shipped to Europe in tubes.

Today, tubocurarine has fallen into disuse in western medicine, as safer synthetic alternatives such as atracurium
Atracurium

Atracurium is a neuromuscular-blocking drugs or muscle relaxant in the category of non-depolarizing neuromuscular-blocking drugs, used adjunctively in anesthesia to facilitate endotracheal intubation and to provide skeletal muscle relaxation during surgery or mechanical ventilation....
 are available. However, tubocurarine is still used in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 and elsewhere as part of the lethal injection
Lethal injection

File:Map of US lethal injection usage.svgLethal injection refers to the practice of injecting a person with a fatal dose of drugs for the express purpose of killing the subject....
 procedure.

Other names

d-Tubocurarine. Tubocurarin. Tubocurarinum. Delacurarine. Tubarine. Metubine. Jex

HSDB 2152. Isoquinoline Alkaloid. Tubadil. Mecostrin. Intracostin. Intocostrin.