2nd International Conference on Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology

Eitr is the fluid of life in Nordic mythology and is the origin of all living things. The first giant Ymir was conceived from Eitr. The substance is supposed to be very poisonous and is produced by Jörmungandr and other serpents. The word Eitr exists in most North Germanic languages (all derived from the Old Norse language) in Icelandic eitur, in Danish edder, in Swedish etter. Cognates also exist in Dutch ether, in German Eiter (lit. pus), in Old Saxon ĕttar, in Old English ăttor. The meaning of the word is very broad: poisonous, evil, bad, angry, sinister, etc., and according to Wikipedia, the word is used in common Scandinavian folklore as a synonym for snake poison.  From Teutonic Mythology by Viktor Rydberg: "Eitr means the lowest degree of cold and poison at the same time ... tongues were made speechless with cold. In Saxo’s descriptions of the regions of misery in the lower world, it is only the torturing demons that speak. The dead are speechless, and suffer their ag

The Chinese masterpiece in Ethnopharmacology Gu poison, the deadliest poison in medieval China, was collected by sealing venomous snakes, scorpions, and centipedes in a jar and forcing them to fight and devour each other. The surviving creature containing a concentrated toxin. Gu poison was considered a slow-acting poison. It was said to have no taste, allowing unsuspecting victims to go about their normal lives for as long as 10 days before they started feeling ill. Dating as far back as 610, gu is also described as a form of black magic and witchcraft with the poison being a central part of the practice. Concocting a strong formula of gu poison required the “five poisonous creatures” in China: the viper, centipede, scorpion, toad, and spider. The poisonous insects, worms, and reptiles, referred to as “chong,” were thought of as evil spirits or demons that possessed a vessel, or the human body. Gu poison has been associated with several regions and peoples in China through