It was first isolated and purified by Brazilian scientist José Moura Gonçalves, and later intensively studied by his group of collaborators at the Medical School of Ribeirão Preto of the University of São Paulo.

Crotamine has similar structural fold conformations to the human β-defensin family as well as an identical arrangement of three disulfide bridges.

[2] The gene and chromosome location responsible for its synthesis have been identified by the group led by Gandhi Rádis-Baptista, working at the Instituto Butantan, in São Paulo, Brazil.

[3] The gene has been previously isolated in the C. durissus terrificus genome and the protein itself belongs to a group of small basic polypeptide myotoxins (SBPM).

Research on SBPM amino acid sequences among different Crotalus species has revealed a high degree of likeness ranging from 83% - 98%.

When comparing the amino acid sequences of other proteins not in the SBPM family found in snake venoms, there is usually large divergence.