We supply crude whole venom of Leiurus quinquestriatus, collected from the north-African population in the Aswan region of Egypt. This page covers what the material is, what buyers use it for, and what turns up when you order it. The current price per gram is published on the venom exchange.
The species
Leiurus quinquestriatus is a buthid scorpion of the arid belt running from North Africa across the Middle East, and it goes by several names in the literature: the deathstalker, the yellow Israeli scorpion, and the yellow Mediterranean scorpion. Egypt sits inside its natural range, and the animals we work with come from the desert around Aswan rather than from captive colonies bred elsewhere.
Provenance matters more here than it does for most research reagents. Venom composition varies between populations of the same species, and between seasons within a population, so a paper that characterised a toxin from Egyptian material is not automatically describing what you get from an Israeli or Sudanese collection. Every lot we ship states its collection region and extraction period for that reason.
What is in the venom
Crude whole venom is the complete secretion: a mixture of neurotoxic peptides, enzymes such as hyaluronidase and phospholipase, mucopolysaccharides, free amino acids and salts. The peptide fraction is what most buyers are after, and L. quinquestriatus is the source organism for several of the best-known ion-channel toxins in pharmacology.
| Toxin | Target | Typically used for |
|---|---|---|
| Chlorotoxin | Small-conductance chloride channels; binds glioma cells and MMP-2 | Tumour targeting and imaging, glioma research |
| Charybdotoxin | Calcium-activated potassium channels (BK), Kv1 subtypes | Potassium channel pharmacology |
| Agitoxins 1–3 | Shaker-type Kv1 channels | Channel structure and gating studies |
| Scyllatoxin (leiurotoxin I) | Small-conductance calcium-activated potassium channels (SK) | SK channel characterisation |
| Alpha and beta sodium-channel toxins | Voltage-gated sodium channels, some insect-selective | Sodium channel research, bioinsecticide work |
Chlorotoxin is the one that reached the clinic. Its selectivity for glioma over healthy brain tissue is the basis of the tumour-paint imaging agents and the radiolabelled targeting work that followed, and it remains the single most cited reason researchers buy this species rather than another.
We supply the venom unfractionated. If you need an isolated peptide, you are buying a purified reagent from a specialist supplier, not crude venom from us. What we sell is the starting material.
What buyers use it for
Antivenom production. Scorpion envenomation is a live clinical problem across North Africa and the Middle East, and L. quinquestriatus is one of the medically significant species. Producers use crude venom as the immunogen for raising hyperimmune plasma.
Ion-channel research. The toxins above are standard pharmacological tools for probing channel function, and crude venom is the input for laboratories that fractionate their own.
Oncology research. Chlorotoxin-based targeting and imaging remains an active field, and groups working on conjugates and analogues source crude venom to extract from.
Agricultural research. The insect-selective sodium-channel toxins are of interest to work on biological insecticides, where the selectivity is the whole point.
Supplied for laboratory research and manufacturing use only. This is not a medicinal product and is not intended for human or veterinary administration.
How it is produced, and why it costs what it does
Venom is collected by mild electrical stimulation of the telson, which makes the animal express a droplet without being harmed; the same scorpion is milked repeatedly over its life. The droplet is small. An adult yields a few milligrams of dry venom at most per extraction, and needs a recovery period before the next one, which means a single gram of lyophilised powder represents a great many extractions and a considerable colony.
That arithmetic is the whole explanation for the price. Extraction is also seasonal, since activity and yield both fall in the cold months, so supply is uneven across the year in a way that a manufactured reagent’s never is. It is why we publish a price that moves rather than a list price we set once and defend.
The collected venom is pooled, lyophilised and sealed. It leaves as a dry powder, not a solution.
What arrives
Lyophilised crude venom, pale yellow to off-white, in sealed vials. Standard presentation is a single vial for the ordered mass; we will split a lot into aliquots if you say so on the order, which is worth doing if your protocol would otherwise put you through repeated freeze-thaw cycles.
Each lot ships with a certificate of analysis stating the species, the collection region, the extraction period, the lyophilised mass, the protein content and the appearance, along with the safety data sheet. The certificate is the specification: it describes the lot in your hands, not a generic product sheet.
Storage and handling
The powder is stable at ambient temperature for the duration of air-courier transit, which is why it ships without a cold chain unless your incoming-goods procedure requires one. On arrival, store it dry, dark and frozen, at −20 °C or below, for long-term stability. Reconstitute in buffer immediately before use and avoid repeated freeze-thaw cycles, which cost you activity.
Treat it as an active neurotoxin regardless of how it is classified. That means trained personnel, appropriate containment, no handling of the dry powder in a way that could raise dust, and care with sharps during reconstitution. Anyone with a known scorpion or arthropod venom allergy should not handle it. Read the safety data sheet before opening the vial, not after.
Documentation and compliance
L. quinquestriatus is not listed under CITES, and the venom is not classified as hazardous under Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008. That does not make it free to move: export from Egypt and import into your territory remain subject to the customs and biological-material controls that apply to material of animal origin, and those differ by destination.
We handle export clearance from Egypt and issue the shipping documentation. You are the importer of record and hold whatever authorisation applies at destination. Tell us the destination country and the intended use when you enquire, and we will tell you what has been accepted on previous shipments to that market before anyone commits to anything.
Price and ordering
The price per gram is published and updated daily on our venom exchange, the first exchange in the world for this material, along with the volume pricing from half a gram upwards. Orders are priced at the moment you send them.
