The center had been converted from a scientific agricultural research station. Ricin is one of the most toxic naturally occurring substances known, and has been used as a natural pesticide. The toxin was injected into him from the tip of an umbrella as Markov was waiting for a bus. Focus Remained Iraq moved the research arm of its biological warfare program to Salman Pak, at the opposite end of Baghdad, in 1987. The toxin causes gas gangrene when it finds its way into open battlefield wounds.
Gas gangrene produces pain and swelling as the infected area bloats with gas.
Later it causes shock, jaundice and death. Iraq also produced hundreds of litres of clostridium perfringens toxin at its Al Hakum facility 60 kilometres southwest of Baghdad, along with thousands of litres of Anthrax and concentrated botulinum toxin. The United Nations destroyed Al Hakum in 1996. In 1990, Iraq also took over the Daura Foot and Mouth Disease Vaccine facility south of Baghdad. Production of botulism took place there, too, and the biological weapons program began looking at other sources.