Snake Venom Shelf Life?

Ed_r · #1 (**permalink**) 09-23-2003, 04:33 AM

Just curious, if snake venom stays at a constant toxisity(sp?) out of the snakes body over time? I mean if it is stored in a vile for some length of time, say a month, is it still as potent as the day it was extracted, or does it degrade?

BWSmith · #2 (**permalink**) 09-23-2003, 06:20 AM

Good question which I do not know the answer. Although I would assume that it would since it is generally freeze dried.

RevMojo · #3 (**permalink**) 09-23-2003, 11:30 PM

Regardless Ed, you still have to make it look like the snake bit your wife

Ed_r · #4 (**permalink**) 09-24-2003, 12:43 AM

ROFLMAO Hush!!!

Ravnos · #5 (**permalink**) 09-24-2003, 04:43 PM

Once it is freeze dried, as long as it is kept at a constant cold temperature, to my knowledge, it doesn't degrade for quite some time. Reconstitute it properly and voila good as new. Now, if it was just stored in a jar at room temperature I'm sure it would break down fairly quickly. Most liquid antivenins only have a recommended shelf life of something like 6-9 months (though it is often kept much longer). Being such a complex compound its almost impossible to say what the toxicity (or in the case of antivenin, usefulness) drop off would be as it broke down without doing tests after every week of storage. Now that more and more scientists are discovering useful things to do with venom (cancer research, etc) we may have an answer to this question pretty soon.

Rav

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