The Antidote

An antidote is a substance which can counteract a form of poisoning.

Sometimes, the antidote for a particular toxin is manufactured by injecting the toxin into an animal in small doses and the resulting antibodies are extracted from the animals’ blood. The venom produced by some snakes, spiders, and other venomous animals is often treatable by the use of these antivenoms, although a number do lack one, and a bite or sting from such an animal often results in death.

However, some toxins have no known antidote. For example, the poison ricin, which is produced from the waste byproduct of castor oil manufacture, has no antidote, and as a result is often fatal if it enters the human body in sufficient quantities.