From Poison Arrows to Prozac

When the deadly poison curare was first encountered on the tips of the arrows used by indigenous hunters in the rainforests of the Amazon, no-one could have realised its true potential to transform medical science. Curare was to become the corner stone of modern anaesthetics, it led directly to a host of drugs as diverse as Prozac, betablockers, Botox and Diarrhoea, and more recently led to our understanding of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Follow the author on an unforgettable journey from the tip of a jungle arrow right into the very nerve-centre of your body...

Stanley Feldman is a leading light in the field of modern anaesthetics, a former Professor of Anaesthetics at London University.