Relative toxicity Toxicity and Relative Toxicity in Snake Venoms Snake venoms are like soups. Most of them contain many different components and some of these are toxic to man. Some of the neurotoxins also cause muscle damage. There are also toxins which can cause a drop in blood pressure in this venom 3 .
Most venoms have many components, some of which are known to be toxic to man.
There are also many components in most venoms that are still uncharacterised. It is the combined effect of all the components in snake venoms that gives it its overall toxicity. In the past, and to a lesser extent today, toxicity was measured by injecting test animals with venoms 7 . Many different types of animals have been used. In the 1960's and 1970's, mice became the universally accepted test animal and comparative toxicity was expressed as an LD 50 .