The Collaborative International Dictionary
Conine \Co"nine\ (? or ?), n. [From Conium.] (Chem.) A powerful and very poisonous vegetable alkaloid found in the hemlock ( Conium maculatum) and extracted as a colorless oil, C8H17N, of strong repulsive odor and acrid taste. It is regarded as a derivative of piperidine and likewise of one of the collidines. It occasions a gradual paralysis of the motor nerves. Called also coniine, coneine, conia, etc. See Conium, 2. [1913 Webster] ||
Wiktionary
n. A poisonous alkaloid found in poison hemlock and the yellow pitcher plant; it is a neurotoxin which disrupts the peripheral nervous system.
Wikipedia
Coniine is a poisonous alkaloid found in poison hemlock ( Conium maculatum), the yellow pitcher plant ( Sarracenia flava), and fool's parsley ( Aethusa cynapium) and contributes to hemlock's fetid smell. It disrupts the peripheral nervous system and is toxic to humans and all classes of livestock; less than 0.1g is fatal to humans, with death caused by respiratory paralysis. Notably, Socrates was sentenced to death by drinking a mixture containing poison hemlock in 399 BC.
Coniine has two stereoisomers: (S)-(+)-coniine, and (R)-(−)-coniine, both of which are present in hemlock (see "Modern Chemical Studies", below). Coniine was first synthesized by Albert Ladenburg in 1886; it was the first of the alkaloids to be synthesized.
Usage examples of "coniine".
But if he’d taken the coniine from the bottle she’d hidden in her room, his fingerprints would have been on the bottle as well as hers.
Very compelling—very convinced: “I suggest to you, Mrs Crale, that this story of yours about stealing coniine in order to commit suicide is a tissue of falsehood.
In the course of this tour, he had mentioned certain specific drugs—one of which was coniine, the active principle of the spotted hemlock.
On analysis it was found to contain faint traces of oil of jasmine, and a strong solution of coniine hydrobromide.
After listening to Mr Meredith Blake’s description of the drug she had slipped back to the laboratory, had emptied out a bottle of jasmine scent which was in her bag and had filled the bottle up with coniine solution.
But that point wasn’t relevant because we never claimed that the coniine was in the beer bottle.
But if Amyas or Elsa die of coniine poisoning, you’ll be hanged by your neck!
I suppose I was in there with the rest of them when he gave a dissertation on the efficacy of coniine, but I don’t remember it.
He explained that he had been into his laboratory and that the coniine bottle was half-empty.
She took the coniine, resolved to end her own life when Amyas left her.
Why, for instance, were only Caroline’s fingerprints found on the empty coniine bottle.
And I think that Meredith’s happening to discuss coniine so freely just gave her the means to do what she’d already made up her mind to do.
I read up coniine, and it hasn’t got any distinctive post-mortem appearances.
But the scent bottle found in her room and which contained the dregs of coniine had originally contained jasmine scent.
I take it as certain, then, that Mrs Crale decided to steal the coniine, and surreptitiously emptied out the scent from a bottle she had in her bag.