curare

American  

[kyoo-rahr-ee, koo-] / kyʊˈrɑr i, kʊ- /

Or curari

noun

1. a blackish, resinlike substance derived from tropical plants of the genus Strychnos, especially S. toxifera, and from the root of pareira, used by certain South American Indians for poisoning arrows and employed in physiological experiments, medicine, etc., for arresting the action of motor nerves.

2. a plant yielding this substance.

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curare British  

/ kjʊˈrɑːrɪ /

noun

1. black resin obtained from certain tropical South American trees, esp Chondrodendron tomentosum , acting on the motor nerves to cause muscular paralysis: used medicinally as a muscle relaxant and by South American Indians as an arrow poison

2. any of various trees of the genera Chondrodendron (family Menispermaceae ) and Strychnos (family Loganiaceae ) from which this resin is obtained

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curare Scientific  

/ k-rä′rē,ky- /

1. A dark, resinous extract obtained from several tropical American woody plants, especially Chondrodendron tomentosum or certain species of Strychnos, used as an arrow poison by some Indian peoples of South America.

2. A purified preparation of an alkaloid obtained from Chondrodendron tomentosum, used in medicine and surgery to relax skeletal muscles.

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Etymology

Origin of curare

1770–80; < Portuguese < Carib kurari

Example Sentences

Even today, most patients undergoing major surgery have no idea that part of the anaesthetic mix will be a modern pharmaceutical version of curare, a poison derived from a South American plant, which causes paralysis.

From The Guardian • Feb. 9, 2018

This is not only true for those experimenting with curare.

From The Guardian • Jan. 6, 2018

But shutting down the entire rail system is like injecting the drug curare into a beating heart.

From Washington Post • Feb. 5, 2016

In the nineteen-forties, doing field work in the Amazon, Schultes identified the source of curare, a derivative of which, d-tubocurarine, is used to treat muscle disorders like those associated with Parkinson’s disease.

From The New Yorker • Mar. 23, 2015

One should add that since Claude Bernard's work on curare, physiologists have seen reason for doubting whether it leaves sensibility intact, as Bernard thought.

From The Pros and Cons of Vivisection by Richet, Charles