 He reported that extract of pituri is toxic to frogs, rats, cats and dogs, with a very small dose diluted in water and injected under the skin causing death after respiratory arrest in some cases.Bancroft received more specimens in 1877, collected on an expedition to north-west Queensland by the explorer William Hodgkinson and identified by Ferdinand von Mueller as the broken leaves and twigs of the shrub "Duboisia hopwoodii".Hodgkinson was taken aback by Bancroft's assessment of pituri's toxicity, and said it was as benign as tobacco