ABSTRACT
The research push during World War II began with studies done by the irascible Boris A.Krukoff (1898-1983), one of the few botanists in history to become wealthy. During his study of curare, Krukoff found that Erythrina was one of its sources. Then it was discovered that the seeds of some Erythrina contain alkaloids with a curare-like action (Dominique and Altamirano 1877 in Symposium 1974, Folkers and Koniuszy 1940 in Symposium 1974). Since curare was an important muscle relaxant during surgery, another source was considered potentially useful. Finally, it was learned that chemicals in Erythrina (erythroidine, erysodine) have tertiary bases, not quaternary bases like curare alkaloids, and that they were not as useful as some had hoped.
