News stories claiming that a litre of scorpion venom is worth millions of dollars resurface every year and drive up searches for the price of scorpion venom. This article does not give a price. Instead, it explains why scorpion venom is considered such a valuable material, how much work lies behind a single gram and which factors determine its value.
First, a correction is needed: venom is not a product bought and sold by the litre. In research and industry it is traded on a milligram and gram scale, mostly as a lyophilized powder and together with an analysis report.
How much venom is obtained from a scorpion?
The amount of venom a scorpion gives in a single milking is extremely small. For Androctonus crassicauda, an average of about 0.3 mg of venom per milking by electrical stimulation has been reported (Latifi and Tabatabai, 1979, as cited in Ozkan et al., 2007). This value varies with the species, the size and nutritional state of the animal and the interval between two milkings.
After a milking, the venom gland takes time to refill. Venom is therefore not taken from the same animal in quick succession; a rest interval is allowed, and the total amount that can be obtained from one individual within a year remains limited. The steps of milking are described in the article how scorpion venom is extracted.
How many milkings does 1 gram take?
Taking 0.3 mg per milking, a simple calculation shows what the gram scale means. The table below is only a rough estimate based on this average; the actual number differs with the species and production conditions.
| Target amount | Individual milkings needed (approx.) |
|---|---|
| 100 mg | More than 330 |
| 1 g | More than 3,300 |
| 10 g | More than 33,000 |
The fact that a single gram requires thousands of separate milkings also explains why a batch intended for shipment is made up not from one animal but by pooling the milkings of many individuals. The question of how many scorpions a litre of venom comes from has no practical answer; that volume is far beyond the real scale of scorpion venom production.
How the amount is expressed also matters. Part of the liquid venom obtained by milking is water; the dry powder left after lyophilization weighs less than the liquid form of the same batch. The specification therefore states whether the amount refers to dry powder weight or liquid volume, together with the protein content. In the reference batch analysis of our facility, the protein concentration was measured at 28 mg/mL; values may vary from batch to batch.
The chain that determines value
Low yield is only one side of the story. Every stage the venom passes through before reaching the buyer is a separate item of labour and cost:
- Colony care: The animals are kept in individual containers and fed regularly; temperature and humidity are monitored continuously.
- Milking one by one: Each individual is milked separately; the procedure is carried out under sterile conditions by trained staff.
- Stabilization: The collected venom is lyophilized and stored in the cold chain; the reasons are given in the article why scorpion venom is lyophilized.
- Independent analysis: Each batch is characterized off-site in an independent laboratory; the methods are on the analysis page.
- Permits and documents: The establishment permit, business licence, CITES assessment and safety data sheet are prepared and kept up to date.
- Dangerous goods transport: The product is shipped under UN number 3462 and class 6.1, under packing group I conditions.
"A million dollars a litre": how to read these stories
Litre or kilogram prices circulating in the news and on social media mostly cite no source. These figures may be based not on any real transaction but on scaling up prices quoted for small quantities to large volumes; yet neither production nor purchasing takes place at such volumes.
In real trade, the main factors that determine value are the species itself, the form (lyophilized powder or liquid), purity and protein content, the scope of analysis, the order quantity and shipping conditions. Venom is therefore bought and sold not at a list price but through a quotation issued together with a batch-specific specification and analysis report. The responsibilities a buyer takes on in procurement are discussed in the article on buyer obligations in B2B venom supply.
Our facility supplies its product to institutions for research and industrial use only. For a specification, batch analysis report or quotation request, the contact page can be used.
