A FOA Briefing Book on Chemical Weapons.
Toxins are effective and specific poisons produced by living organisms.
They may also be low-molecular organic compounds. Toxins are produced by numerous organisms, e.g., bacteria, fungi, algae and plants. Many of them are extremely poisonous, with a toxicity that is several orders of magnitude greater than the nerve agents. Toxins started to attract military interest already during the first half of the present century. At that time, it was difficult to manufacture sufficiently large amounts of toxin which caused interest to decrease.