Editing Lytta vesicatoria (section)

=== Toxicity and poisonings===

Cantharidin is dangerously toxic, inhibiting the enzyme [[PP2|phosphatase 2A]]. It causes irritation, blistering, bleeding and discomfort. These effects can escalate to erosion and [[hemorrhage|bleeding]] of [[mucosa]] in each system, sometimes followed by severe gastro-intestinal bleeding and [[acute tubular necrosis]] and [[Glomerulus (kidney)|glomerular]] destruction, resulting in gastro-intestinal and [[kidney dysfunction|renal dysfunction]], [[organ failure]], and death.<ref name=Froberg10/><ref name=EvansHooserCompTox10>{{cite book |last1=Evans |first1=T. J. |last2=Hooser |first2=S. B. |editor1=Hooser, Stephen |editor2=McQueen, Charlene |year=2010 |chapter=Comparative Gastrointestinal Toxicity (Ch. 16) |title=Comprehensive Toxicology |edition=2nd |isbn=978-0080468846 |pages=195–206 |location=London, England  |publisher=Elsevier Academic Press |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0080468845 }}</ref><ref name=Gupta12>{{cite book |last1=Gwaltney-Brant |first1=Sharon M. |last2=Dunayer |first2=Eric |last3=Youssef |first3=Hany  |editor=Gupta, Ramesh C. |year=2012 |chapter=Terrestrial Zootoxins [Coleoptera: Meloidae (Blister Beetles) |title=Veterinary Toxicology: Basic and Clinical Principles |edition=2nd |isbn=978-0123859266 |pages=975–978 |location=London, England |publisher=Elsevier Academic Press |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0123859263 |access-date=14 December 2015 }}</ref><ref name=karras>{{cite journal |last1=Karras |first1=David J. |title=Poisoning From "Spanish Fly" (Cantharidin) |journal=[[The American Journal of Emergency Medicine]] |year=1996 |doi=10.1016/S0735-6757(96)90158-8 |quote=While most commonly available preparations of Spanish fly contain cantharidin in negligible amounts, if at all, the chemical is available illicitly in concentrations capable of causing severe toxicity. |volume=14 |issue=5 |pages=478–483 |pmid=8765116 |last2=Farrell |first2=S. E. |last3=Harrigan |first3=R. A. |last4=Henretig |first4=F. M. |last5=Gealt |first5=L. |display-authors=3}}<!--paper reviews knowledge as well as reporting cases--></ref><ref name=WilsonCompTox10>{{cite book |last=Wilson |first=C. R. |editor=Hooser, Stephen |editor2=McQueen, Charlene |year=2010 |chapter=Methods for Analysis of Gastrointestinal Toxicants (Ch. 9) |title=Comprehensive Toxicology |edition=2nd |isbn=978-0080468846 |pages=145–152, esp. 150 |location=London, England |publisher=Elsevier Academic Press |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0080468845 |access-date=14 December 2015 }}</ref>

Preparations of Spanish fly and its active agent have been implicated in both inadvertent<ref name=Froberg10>{{cite book |last=Froberg |first=Blake A. |editor1=Holstege, Christopher P. |editor2=Neer, Thomas |editor3=Saathoff, Gregory B. |editor4=Furbee, R. Brent |year=2010 |chapter=Animals |title=Criminal Poisoning: Clinical and Forensic Perspectives |location=Burlington, Massachusetts |publisher=Jones & Bartlett |isbn=978-1449617578 |pages=39–48, esp. 41, 43, 45ff |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1449617573 |access-date=16 December 2015 }} Note: ''the active agent appears variously as [[cantharidin]],{{rp|41}} and "cantharadin"{{rp|43,45ff}} or "canthariadin"{{rp|238}}'' (sic).</ref> and intentional poisonings.<ref name=Froberg10/> Arthur Kendrick Ford was imprisoned in 1954 for the unintended deaths of two women surreptitiously given candies laced with [[cantharidin]], which he had intended to act as an [[aphrodisiac]].<ref name=Froberg10/> It has been suggested that [[George Washington]] was treated with Spanish fly for [[epiglottitis]], the condition which caused his death.<ref>{{cite book |last=Henriques |first=Peter R. |year=2000 |title=The Death of George Washington: He Died as He Lived |publisher=Mount Vernon Ladies' Association |location=Mount Vernon, Virginia |pages=27–36 |isbn=978-0-931917-35-6 }}</ref>

Currently the cantharidin in US, in the form of collodion, is used in the treatment of warts and [[molluscum]].{{cn|date=May 2024}}