Plants with toxic alkaloids - University of Washington

Plants with toxic amino acids and proteins
Lectins are sugar-binding proteins
that are highly specific for their
sugar moieties. They moderate
biological recognition like viruses
use lectins to attach themselves to
the cells.
Plant lectins like arbrin and ricin
attach themselves to the
glycoproteins at the surface of
erythrocytes and cause them to
clump together hemagglutinins
Peter Hermann Stillmark in 1888 (University of Dorpat) isolated ricin, an extremely toxic
hemagglutinin, from seeds of the castor plant (Ricinus communis) The first lectin to be
purified on a large scale and available on a commercial basis was concanavalin A from
the jack bean.