Woman’s Find May Have Medical Value

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31080, 8 June 1966, Page 10

Woman’s Find May Have Medical Value

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter) WASHINGTON. A deadly poison from a tiny frog could have a great value, doctors believe, as a medicine in the treatment of heart diseases, arthritis and other illnesses.

It is the venom used for centuries by Colombian Indians on the tips of their poisoned darts. The venom has been brought by a woman explorer, Mrs Marte Latham, from the Colombian jungles and is being analysed by the National Institute of Health and the Army and Navy’s Department of Chemical Warfare.

Mrs Latham also brought back alive about 12 inch-long black and gold Kokoa frogs which produce the venom. These have been put on display at the National Geographic Society’s exhibition in Washington. They are safely locked behind glass in a

miniature jungle eo no-one can be harmed by their venom.

Mrs Latham, a professional explorer and collector of rare animals, took her 14-year-old son, Billy, with her on her six-month trip in the Choco jungles of Colombia to collect the frogs. She made her base in the mud and palm-fronted village of Playa de Oro, on the San Juan river, an area largely inhabited by poor Negroes, descendants of slaves taken to Colombia by the Spanish centuries ago. From there, Indians who make their homes in the jungle, guided Mrs Latham and Billy to the swamplands where the Kokoa frogs live. More than 6000 frogs were caught and Mrs Latham extracted 190 milligrams of pure venom from them.