North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[david.maxwell@dal.ca]

A most interesting thread, (albeit rather unrelated to fruit growing).  May I 
throw in a couple of 
bits of science from my medical background? 1) The venoms in all marine 
organisms are 
heat labile, but specifically at temperatures considerably lower than those 
needed to denature 
human tissue proteins.  The practical significance of this is that if you get 
stung by a jellyfish, 
or one of the fish with stinging spines you can successfully inactivate the 
venom simply with 
hot water, (and indeed this is the most appropriate therapy - hot 
compresses).  I have no idea 
whether the same thing applies to snake venoms, but rather doubt it, given 
that snakes are 
biting warm-blooded creatures, and if the venom were inactivated at 
relatively low 
temperatures, (such as only a little above body heat), it would not work very 
well for the 
snake's  purposes. 2) On the other side of this coin, there is a gadget 
(available on the 
internet as well as in some retail outlets (Lee Valley)), called a 
"Therapik", designed to treat 
insect bites by applying local heat to the bite.  Apparently the heat is 
sufficient to inactivate 
the "venom" of mosqitoes and black flies, but not enough to damage human 
proteins.  I can 
attest to its efficacy, and actually performed (unblinded) experiments on 
myself to prove that 
it worked.  So there are models for denaturation of specific proteins by 
factors which spare 
body proteins.  But whether this would apply to electric currents I have not 
the slightest idea.