Toad
Bufo
- Known today as
- The common toad, dried, powdered, or worn.
- Kind
- Animal, in 3 older authorities
- Constituents
- bufotalin, bufotenine, 5-MeO-DMT
- Poisoning
- Cardiac glycoside poisoning
- Earliest authority here
- Van Helmont (1580–1644)
Revised October 3, 2026: Tradition, lore, modern assessment, and sources extended. Checked against its sources, each read in full, in part, or in its abstract. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.
Caution. Toad secretions are poisonous.
Toad: what was it used for?
Worn against the plague, and laid dried on the plague-sore to draw the poison into itself.
Toad: what does modern science say?
Toad skin secretes bufotoxins, which act on the heart. The parotoid glands behind the eyes secrete bufotoxins, which act on the heart like digitalis and have killed people who took chansu or Caribbean toad preparations as aphrodisiacs; the Colorado River toad, Incilius alvarius, secretes 5-MeO-DMT, a hallucinogen now smoked in ceremonies and studied for depression, and “toad licking” has drawn the attention of the press since its smoking was popularised by a pamphlet of 1983. Dogs that attack the Colorado River toad have been paralysed or killed.
Toad: is it poisonous?
Yes, in some form or dose. Toad secretions are poisonous. Its poisoning is cardiac glycoside poisoning: Hours. Historical description, not medical advice; in a poisoning, call a poison centre.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- Mechanism
- The bufadienolides are potent inhibitors of the Na+/K+ ATPase, and their poisoning resembles digitalis toxicity; 5-MeO-DMT binds strongly to the 5-HT2 and 5-HT1A serotonin receptors.
- Checked against ChEMBL
- bufotalin: No measurement in ChEMBL for “block the heart's sodium pump” (20 activities recorded, none against the target named); the line rests on its references.
- 5-MeO-DMT: Measured, as the entry says (“a serotonin agonist”): 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor 2A (human), EC50 1.8 nM, CHEMBL4840380; 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor 1A (rat), Ki 5.5 nM, CHEMBL1129278.
- Toxic dose
- Toad-venom “aphrodisiacs” have killed within hours; digoxin-specific Fab fragments may save life.
- Syndrome
- Cardiac glycoside poisoning
- Standing
- Chansu is in the Chinese pharmacopoeia; 5-MeO-DMT is in clinical trials for depression.
- Gowda, R. M., et al. (2003). “Toad venom poisoning.” Heart 89. Abstract read · the text read
The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
What Medicine Makes of It
- Charming the WartThe toad, the bean, and the natural history of warts.
Toad: what lore surrounds it?
The witch’s familiar, the toad was also a healer: dried and laid on the plague-sore, it was held to draw the poison into itself. See Toadstone.
In China the three-legged money toad brings fortune, and the dried venom, chansu, is in the heart medicines of the pharmacopoeia.
Toad: what did the older authorities say?
- Van Helmont
- Recommended an amulet made from a toad dried and powdered as a defense against the plague.
- Pliny
- Of the “bramble-frog,” which his translators take for the toad, reports that a bone from its right side cools boiling water, and, tied to the patient in fresh lamb’s skin, assuages fevers and checks amorous propensities; authors, he says, vie with one another in marvellous stories of it.
- The witch trials
- Among the familiars that accused witches described, the toad was one of the commonest, kept in a pot lined with wool and fed on milk, bread, meat, or blood; Shakespeare’s witches begin their cauldron with the toad “that under cold stone days and nights has thirty-one sweltered venom sleeping got.”
Sources
- Van Helmont, J. B. (1644). Tumulus pestis. Read in part · the text read
- Shakespeare, Macbeth IV.i. Read in part · the text read
- Pliny, Natural History XXXII. Read in part · the text read
- Wikipedia, “Bufotoxin.” Read in full · the text read
- Wikipedia, “Colorado River toad.” Read in full · the text read
- Wikipedia, “Jin Chan.” Read in full · the text read
- Wikipedia, “Familiar.” Read in full · the text read
- Zou, D., et al. (2022). Bufadienolides originated from toad source and their anti-inflammatory activity. Frontiers in Pharmacology 13. Abstract read · the text read
- Seynaeve, M., et al. (2026). Intranasal 5-MeO-DMT concomitant with SSRI for treatment-resistant depression: a proof-of-concept trial. CNS Drugs. Read in full · the text read
In Symbols of the Psyche
The Toad: what it stood for in alchemy and in analytical psychology.
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026, and October 3, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- The mechanism read against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37): curated mechanisms and measured activity
- Every source read, in full, in part, or in its abstract, and every sentence checked against what was read (October 3, 2026)
- Sources
- 10 cited: 5 read in full, 3 read in part, 2 abstract read. 2 with the abstract on file.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 25, 2026 · last revised October 3, 2026
- Chicago
“Toad.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 3, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/toad.
- MLA
“Toad.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 3 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/toad. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Toad. (2026, October 3). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/toad
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See Also
Poisoned alike: cardiac glycoside poisoning
Yew · Squill · Black hellebore · Oxymel, and oxymel of squill · Foxglove · the syndrome, with all of them →
Also in Pliny the Elder
Tongue stones in Pliny the Elder · Thyme in Pliny the Elder · Teasel in Pliny the Elder · Troche of agaric in Pliny the Elder · everything Pliny the Elder names →
Drawing on the same sources: Shakespeare, Pliny, Wikipedia
Toadstone · Rosemary · Caraway broth · Walnut, middle bark of · White lead · Toadflax · Spermaceti · the bibliography →
Nearby in the alphabet
Tinder fungus (A hoof-shaped bracket of birch and beech) · Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) · The thurible · Thorn apple (of the nightshade family)
Historical description, not medical advice.