Sharjah24 – AFP: Surrounded by thousands of live scorpions in a laboratory deep in Egypt's Western Desert, Ahmed Abu al-Seoud carefully handles one of the curved-tailed arachnids before extracting a drop of its venom.
A mechanical engineer who worked in the oil sector for almost two decades, Abu al-Seoud decided in 2018 to strike a different path -- producing scorpion venom for pharmaceutical research purposes.
"I was surfing the internet and saw scorpion venom was one of the most expensive on the market," said the 44-year-old, clad in a white lab coat.
"So I thought to myself: Why not take advantage of this desert environment where they roam around?"
Biomedical researchers are studying the pharmaceutical properties of scorpion venom, making the rare and potent neurotoxin a highly sought-after commodity now produced in several Middle Eastern countries.
"Dozens of scorpion-derived bioactive molecules have been shown to possess promising pharmacological properties," said a review published last May in the journal Biomedicines.
It said labs are now studying its potential anti-microbial, immuno-suppressive and anti-cancer effects, among others, hoping to one day use or synthesise them for medicines.
Abu al-Seoud is from the Dakhla oasis, located in Egypt's vast New Valley province and around 800 kilometres (500 miles) southwest of the capital Cairo.
Sand dunes and towering palms surround his laboratory, which he affectionately calls the "Scorpion Kingdom".
"Here, every family has a story about a scorpion sting," Abu al-Seoud said.
To get the animals to secrete venom in the controlled conditions of the lab, the scorpions are given a slight electric shock.
Workers wait 20-30 days between extractions to obtain the highest quality venom.
"What matters is the level of purity," Abu al-Seoud said, adding that one gram requires the venom of 3,000-3,500 scorpions.
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