Hirudin Hirudin Hirudin is a naturally occurring peptide in the salivary glands of blood-sucking leeches (such as "Hirudo medicinalis") that has a blood anticoagulant property. This is fundamental for the leeches’ alimentary habit of hematophagy, since it keeps the blood flowing after the initial phlebotomy performed by the worm on the host’s skin. During his years in Birmingham and Edinburgh, John Berry Haycraft had been actively engaged in research and published papers on the coagulation of blood, and in 1884, he discovered that the leech secreted a powerful anticoagulant, which he named hirudin, although it was not isolated until the 1950s,
Salivary gland in many, but by no means all, bird and mammal species (including humans, as noted above). Furthermore, the venom glands of venomous snakes , Gila monsters, and some shrews, are actually modified salivary glands. In other organisms such as insects, salivary glands are often used to produce biologically important proteins like silk or glues, whilst fly salivary glands contain polytene chromosomes that have been useful in genetic research. Salivary gland The salivary glands in mammals are exocrine glands that produce saliva through a system of ducts. Humans have three paired major salivary glands (parotid, submandibular, and sublingual) as well as