Abstract
The Indian common krait (Bungarus caeruleus) or blue krait is one of the members of the “Big Four” venomous snakes of India. Black or bluish-black in color, it has an average length of 1–1.2 m and possesses a flat, blunt, short head with small eyes, with a neck that is barely visible. The snake has a distinctive feature of yellow and black cross-bands along its backbone. The common krait is distributed in the Indian subcontinent, from Afghanistan, the Sindh province of Pakistan, to the plains of West Bengal in eastern India, Bangladesh, and Nepal, though another species of krait (Bungarus fasciatus, the banded krait) predominates in the northeastern part of India. This snake is nocturnal (night dweller) and therefore the maximum number of krait bites are reported during late night. Although the venom is very potent, because of the poor yields, the biochemical composition of Indian common krait venom has not been analyzed in great detail. Only a few toxins from B. caeruleus venom have been purified and characterized though recent proteomic analyses have provided more comprehensive data on the occurrence of different toxins in its venom. The venom contains 57 distinct proteins distributed in 12 snake venom toxin families. The proteomic analyses indicate that PLA2 (37.6%) and three-finger toxins (48.3%) are the most abundant enzymatic and nonenzymatic protein families, respectively. A comparison of two independent studies on the proteomic analyses of krait venom from two distinct geographical locales (southern India and Sri Lanka) has shown the differences in venom composition for B. caeruleus in these countries. Similar to Indian cobra bite, Indian krait bite patients also have neuroparalytic symptoms and also frequently experience abdominal pain and cramps due to internal bleeding. Further studies are required to characterize and compare the venom composition of the Indian common krait from different regions.
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Mukherjee, A.K. (2021). Indian Common Krait (Bungarus caeruleus). In: The 'Big Four’ Snakes of India. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2896-2_5
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