It is well known that all of the elapid venoms contain neurotoxins which are the major principles causing death in animals. Neurotoxins of the venom of Bungarus fasciatus have?been isolated (GHOSH et al.,1939; MOORE and LOY, 1972; LIN SHAIU et al.,1972).In addition to neurotoxins, cobra venom also contains cardiotoxins which are responsible for the circulatory effects as well as for the local actions such as pain, edema and muscle degeneration?(LEE et al.,1968; LAI et., 1972). The venom of Binearus multicinctus contains no such cardictoxin-like principle and does not cause local actions. Although Bungarus fasciatus belongs to the same genus as Bungarus multicinctus, the venom of the former?causes local actions. Hence, it was considered that the venom of Bungarus fasciatus might contain cardiotoxin-like principles. The result described in this paper verified this hypothesis. The pharmxcological properties of cobra cardiotoxin have been extensively studied (LEE et al., 1968 ,1972; CHANG et al., 1972). This toxin affects various kinds of cells to produce skeletal muscle contracture, smooth muscle contraction, local irritation, direct hemolysis and cytotoxic action on HeLa, KB and Yoshida sarcoma cells. In this paper, a comparative study on the chemical and pharmacologicalproperties of the isolated cardio-toxin-like principles from Bungarus fasciatus and cobra venom are described.
