In the last couple of weeks, yet another analog single, isolated chemical entity that is also found in a plant, has come to the forefront because the 45th person to serve in the U.S. presidency, according to an 18 August 2020, press-release by the Austin-based non-profit, the American Botanical Council, noted he “may be considering asking (or may have asked) the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve the drug product called oleandrin as a potential treatment for COVID-19.
The suggestion reportedly came in the form of pillow talk whispered into the ear of the person serving as president by the person known a Mr. Pillow (P-ANON?), purported to be an investor in the company, Phoenix Biotechnologies, based on antiviral and anticancer research of oleandrin, a toxic cardiac glycoside.
The compound, oleandrin, rather than extracted directly from its source plant oleander (Nerium oleander) a famous poisonous shrub from the Middle East and adjacent West Asia, can be efficiently produced in commercially quantities through transgenic Agrobacteria.
In other words, the plant genes that produce the compound are inserted into bacteria to produce mass quantities of this (and other plant compounds) in vats of genetically modified organism, in this case, bacteria. For those concerned about GMOs, the process of mass-producing plant compounds in vats of GMO bacteria is known as GMO 2.0. It would not be unusual, for example, to find the bright yellow alkaloid, berberine, (found in Goldenseal) in capsules in the health food trade that, is actually produced by GMO bacteria, not goldenseal.
Nerium oleander, oleander, is a toxic plant in the Apocynaceae, dogbane family, widely grown in tropical and subtropical regions as an ornamental evergreen shrub, with white to pink to red flowers. All plant parts are toxic, and the acrid poisonous leaves can be fatally toxic to livestock.
This very poisonous shrub is widely grown in warmer regions, including California, Arizona, Texas and Florida, where it is planted an ornamental. People have reportedly died from eating the flowers.
Seven out of 12 French soldiers who cooked meat on oleander skewers during the Peninsula War (1807-1814) died from oleander poisoning. In the Southern U.S., there are reports of campers poisoned from using the sticks to cook hot dogs or marshmallows. So, be wary of poison pillow talk.