The benefits of active substances in amphibians and reptiles and the jeopardy of losing those species forever

Histological Study of Glandular Variability in the Skin of the Natterjack Toad—Epidalea calamita (Laurenti, 1768)—Used in Spanish Historical Ethnoveterinary Medicine and Ethnomedicine

“…Currently, the scientific literature has numerous studies and extensive reviews that document the pharmacological value of amphibians and their benefits in biomedicine [34,59]. Due to their interest in the history of pharmacology and therapeutics, we can highlight, among others, the studies by Kiss and Michl (1962) on the species Bombina variegata; thanks to them, the antibiotic properties of the bombinin peptide were determined [60].…”

“…In the 1960s, too, Daly's work stands out for his contribution to the identification of the compound ABT 594 (Abbott Laboratories) from Epipedobates tricolor as a non-opioid analgesic between 30 and 100 times more powerful than morphine [61][62][63]. It can be stated that the compounds synthesised by amphibians are quite numerous and diverse in chemical composition, but most of them include biogenic amines (adrenaline, noradrenaline, bradykinin, or histamine), steroids (bufadienolides and bufotoxins), alkaloids (batrachotoxin or tetrodotoxin, mostly in the Dendrobatidae family), peptides, and proteins [59]. In recent years, pharmacological and chemical studies on amphibians are still relevant, and can be considered a hot topic due to the interest in traditional Asian medicines or from regions such as Central and South America [26,34,64].…”

“…It should be noted that perhaps the best documented cases are Asian native toad species (Bufo gargarizans, B. melanostictus) from which the "toad venom" (or Venenum bufonis) used in traditional medicine to treat local inflammations, sinusitis, toothache, and cancer sores is obtained [71][72][73][74]. This traditional remedy, also known as Ch'an Su, is being used in health systems where traditional medicine coexists with biomedicine in clinical therapy for heart stimulation, treating tuberculous fistula, diuresis, neurodermatitis, toothache, as an antitumour compound, and as a painkiller [59]. This is the consequence of an intense investigation of traditional Asian remedies where problems of cytotoxicity, bioavailability, or therapeutic dose are also contemplated [74,75].…”

“…Other well-studied bufonids are Bufo marinus (now Rhinella marina) and B. bufo, from which bufotalin and bufotoxin have recently been isolated [26,34,59,64]. Among these species, it is of special interest for our work to dwell on the medical importance of the common toad (B. bufo), as there are data on its popular use both in Spain [30] and Portugal, where, for methodological reasons, on some occasions they have been considered as the same remedy as E. calamita [49] (p. 337).…”

Natural area visitors’ potential role in preventing pathogen threats to amphibian biodiversity

“…In particular, chytridiomycosis, caused by the fungal pathogens Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis and Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, along with Ranavirus, have been identified as threats to global amphibian biodiversity (Gray et al 2015). Declines in amphibian populations are concerning because amphibians provide a range of values to humans including cultural significance (Ali et al 2017), environmental services (West 2018) and medicinal products (West 2018, Crnobrnja-Isailović et al 2020.…”