This book series is based on the book Biogene Gifte, 3rd edition, published 2010 by Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft Stuttgart in German. Because of the enormous increase in knowledge in the field of natural poisons and venoms the topic is now covered in 5 volumes in English.
The focus of this volume is on the toxic ingredients of animal poisons and venoms, their chemical structures, their effects and modes of actions in target organisms, and on the biology of poisonous or venomous animals. It highlights the symptoms of poisoning or envenoming in humans or animals, cite case reports were available, and gives hints on poisoning prevention and on potential treatments.
Prof. Dr Jan-Peter Hildebrandt is a Full Professor of Animal Physiology and Biochemistry at the University of Greifswald since 1999. He obtained his PhD in Zoology from the Free University Berlin. His research interests include animal physiology, ecophysiology, cell physiology, and toxicology. After his postdoctoral period and his habilitation (1995) he received the prestigious Heisenberg fellowship of the German Research Foundation (DFG) to pursue his research on signal transduction in animal cells. From 2002 to 2006 he was the dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Greifswald. He was a member of the Review Board Zoology of the German Research Foundation from 2008 to 2016. Dr Hildebrandt has published many original research articles in international, peer-reviewed journals. He is the lead author of the last two editions of a standard textbook on animal physiology (Penzlin) published by Springer Spektrum.
Eberhard Teuscher, former Professor of Pharmaceutical Biology at the University of Greifswald, Germany, and former Dean of the Faculty for Natural Sciences. The main fields of his research work were the secondary metabolism of fungi, especially of ergot, and of higher plants, the mode of action of essential oils, and pharmacological investigations of the effects of natural compounds on in-vitro cultivated human and animal cells. He is the author of numerous textbooks, monographs and about 150 scientific papers. His books on Culinary Herbs, Spices, Spice Mixtures and Their Essential Oils were awarded the James A. Duke Award of the American Botanical Society.
Ulrike Lindequist, former Professor of Pharmaceutical Biology at the University of Greifswald, Germany, and from 1992 till March 2016 Head of the Department for Pharmaceutical Biology at the Institute for Pharmacy of this University. She became an emeritus professor in Aprile, 2016. Her research focused on the isolation, chemistry, pharmacology, and toxicology of natural compounds from plants, microorganisms and mushrooms, quality, pharmacology and applicability of medicinal mushrooms, marine biotechnology and plasma medicine. She has published about 300 scientific papers and several books and monographs.