About Scolopendra viridicornis Newport, 1844
Scolopendra viridicornis is a species of centipede that belongs to the family Scolopendridae. It can be found in the Amazon rainforest, with its type locality located in Brazil. Because of this geographic range, it is commonly called the Brazilian giant centipede. In northeast Brazil, S. viridicornis is used as an analgesic in regional folk medicine. This species contains a peptide in its body called lacrain, which shows strong antimicrobial activity against Gram-negative bacteria. This peptide is the first antimicrobial peptide ever described from the body extract of a myriapod. Lacrain is considered promising for future applications because it has no detectable cytotoxic activity against human erythrocytes.
