What poison in Poirot: The Big Four?
What drug was used in the itv version of The Big Four? The one that caused the paralysis in the two hostages and one of the murder victims.
Best Answer
By now, I have watched the relevant parts again, and although I think Vedran's answer is correct for the book version of the story, in the TV series, something different was used. I listened to it closely again, and understood something like Jasmine. There is a variety of Jasmine, the Yellow Jasmine, which seems to be very poisonous, containing Gelsemine. This poison is similar to Strychnine, it seems. The Wikipedia page on "The Big Four" seems to agree:
[...] orchestrates the entire Big Four setup, feeding the press with sensational clues and threatening letters and killing his victims to implicate the Peace Party members (whom he then kidnaps and drugs with immobilising gelsemine) [...]
I personally am wondering how Gelsemine can cause such paralysis, since it rather seems to produce convulsions. But that's fiction for you.
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What poison did Agatha Christie use?
Digitalis, or foxglove Digitalis is an extract of the foxglove plant, and it is the suspected poison in Christie's 1938 novel, Appointment with Death. The active chemical is digoxin, readily absorbed into the gastrointestinal track and acting quickly upon the heart.How did Christie have such in depth knowledge about poison?
Christie had the literary luck of studying under a pharmacist who seemed to be plucked from the pages of a mystery novel himself. In her autobiography, she writes that he once showed her a lump of a plant extract called curare, which he kept in his pocket, and which killed by inducing paralysis and asphyxiation.Is the Big Four the last Poirot?
In 2013 The Big Four was adapted as part of the final series of Agatha Christie's Poirot, which starred David Suchet and featured the return of Hastings (Hugh Fraser), Chief Inspector Japp (Philip Jackson) and added Miss Lemon (Pauline Moran), all played by the original actors.What is the big four about Agatha Christie?
The Big Four is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons on 27 January, 1927 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. It features Hercule Poirot, Arthur Hastings, and Inspector (later, Chief Inspector) Japp.Poirot S13E02 The Big Four FULL EPISODE Agatha Christie's Poirot
More answers regarding what poison in Poirot: The Big Four?
Answer 2
It was Belladonna:
Belladonna (also known as Deadly Nightshade, Devil’s Berries or Death Cherries) features in The Caribbean Mystery and The Big Four. Foliage and berries are toxic, containing a mixture of alkaloids including hyoscine (scopolamine) and atropine (both anti-cholinergic anti-muscurinic in action) and hyoscyamine (an isomer of atropine). Both the Emperor Augustus and Agrippina (wife and sister of Claudius) used belladonna to poison contemporaries. Symptoms include dilated pupils, blurred vision, tachycardia, dry mouth, slurred speech, urinary retention, confusion and hallucinations.
Source: Poisons Used In Agatha Christie
Although paralysis is not mentioned here, if you follow the first of the two links, you get:
Severe poisoning can cause paralysis, a coma and respiratory failure.
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Images: Jan Kopřiva, Miriam Fischer, Ann H, Clayton Bunn