resiniferatoxin
resiniferatoxin noun: a naturally occurring ultrapotent capsaicin analogue (having in its pure form a Scoville heat unit measure of 16,000,000,000) that activates the receptor TRPV1 (aka vanilloid receptor 1 or the capsaicin receptor) in a subpopulation of primary afferent sensory neurons involved in nociception.

Noun
resiniferatoxin (uncountable)
- A naturally occurring ultrapotent capsaicin analogue (having in its pure form a Scoville heat unit measure of 16,000,000,000) that activates the receptor TRPV1 (aka vanilloid receptor 1 or the capsaicin receptor) in a subpopulation of primary afferent sensory neurons involved in nociception.
- An exciting recent advance in the vanilloid field has been our discovery that resiniferatoxin (RTX), a naturally occurring diterpene combining structural features of the phorbol ester tumor promoters and of capsaicin (see structures in Fig. 1), functions as an ultrapotent capsaicin analog (4—6) and...1992, Arpad Szallasi, Peter M. Blumberg, 27: Resiniferatoxin, P. Michael Conn (editor), Neurotoxins, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (Academic Press), page 368
- They both cause an initial stimulation and inflammation, capsaicin much more so than resiniferatoxin.2010, Pamela Ellsworth, Alan J. Wein, Questions & Answers About Overactive Bladder, 2nd edition, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, page 98
- Synonyms:
- RTX
Synonyms of resiniferatoxin
Origin of resiniferatoxin
From resinifera + toxin, in reference to the plant Euphorbia resinifera (resin spurge), from which it is extracted.
Words formed from resiniferatoxin
Questions about resiniferatoxin
- What does resiniferatoxin mean?
- Resiniferatoxin means a naturally occurring ultrapotent capsaicin analogue (having in its pure form a Scoville heat unit measure of 16,000,000,000) that activates the receptor TRPV1 (aka vanilloid receptor 1 or the capsaicin receptor) in a subpopulation of primary afferent sensory neurons involved in nociception.
- What part of speech is resiniferatoxin?
- Resiniferatoxin is a noun.
Words near resiniferatoxin in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: resiniferatoxin (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “resiniferatoxin.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/resiniferatoxin. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
