ABSTRACT

It should certainly be no surprise to anyone that living organisms contain biologically active molecules which can affect other living organisms. Nor should it be surprising that some of those biologically active molecules can produce adverse (toxic) effects. The term for these toxicants of biological origin is toxins, and the world is full of them. Toxins can be found in a wide variety of organisms from prokaryotes to eukaryotes, a fact which, in and of itself, is a strong indicator that there must be a signicant survival value to producing such a substance. In this chapter, we will examine the wide range of toxins found in living organisms as well as the evolutionary pressures which contributed to their development.