Myrddin's Garden
Aconitum Lycoctonum
Aconitum Napellus L.
Amanita Muscaria L.
Artemisia Absinthium L.
Arundo Donax L.
Atropa Belladonna L.
Cestrum Parqui
Cannabis Sativa L.
Claviceps Purpurea L.
Conium Maculatum L.
Datura Stramonium L.
Hyoscyamus Niger L.
Lactuca Virosa L.
Mandragora Officinalis L.
Papaver Somniferum L.
Phalaris Arundinacea L.
Psilocybe Semilanceata
Salvia Divinorum
Scopolia Carniolica
Bufo Vulgaris
Conium Maculatum L.
Poison Hemlock
Conium Maculatum L.
Poison Hemlock
Synonyms
No subspecies.
Folk Names
poison hemlock, poison parsley, spotted corobane (rarer forms), carrot fern (Australian Eng.), devil's bread or devil's porridge. Gevlekte Scheerling (Duch)
Conium maculatum is a herbaceous biennial flowering plant that grows to 1.5–2.5 metres (5–8 feet) tall, exceptionally 3.6 m (12 ft). It has a smooth, green, hollow stem, usually spotted or streaked with red or purple on the lower half of the stem. All parts of the plant are hairless (glabrous); the leaves are two- to four-pinnate, finely divided and lacy, overall triangular in shape, up to 50 centimetres (20 inches) long and 40 cm (16 in) broad. Hemlock's flower is small and white; they are loosely clustered and each flower has five petals.
A biennial plant, hemlock produces leaves at its base the first year but no flowers. In its second year it produces white flowers in umbrella-shaped clusters.
Appearance
The hemlock plant is native to Europe and the Mediterranean region.
It exists in some woodland (and elsewhere) in most British Isles counties; in Ulster these are particularly County Down, County Antrim and County Londonderry.
It has become naturalised in Asia, North America, Australia and New Zealand. It is sometimes encountered around rivers in southeast Australia and Tasmania.
Distribution
The plant is often found in poorly drained soil, particularly near streams, ditches, and other watery surfaces. It also appears on roadsides, edges of cultivated fields, and waste areas Conium maculatum grows in quite damp soil, but also on drier rough grassland, roadsides and disturbed ground. It is used as a food plant by the larvae of some lepidoptera, including silver-ground carpet moths and particularly the poison hemlock moth (Agonopterix alstroemeriana). The latter has been widely used as a biological control agent for the plant. Poison hemlock grows in the spring, when much undergrowth is not in flower and may not be in leaf. All plant parts are poisonous.
Cultivation
Since ancient limes, hemlock has “enjoyed” an infamous reputation as a poisonous plant, known as a killing poison (“Socrates’ cup”) and sedative, but it is also known as an aphrodisiac. According to Germanic legend, hemlock was avoided by both man and beast. It was said that only the toad, which would “suck its poison,” liked to live in its vicinity. Hemlock thus stands in close association with the toad goddess, an earth deity venerated especially by Baltic tribes (the ancient Prussians) Saxo Grammaticus has described how Haddingus, who was raised by the giants but later became a favorite of Odin, was once visited at the hearth in the evening by an apparition of a woman who wore hemlock in her garb. This woman, interpreted as a shamanic helping spirit, placed her cloak around Haddingus and led him across a bridge, into the underworld, and to the realm of the dead. In Scandinavia and England, hemlock was a magical plant closely associated with Wotan/Odin. This can be seen in the Norwegian name for the plant, woden-dunk, and the Anglo-Saxon wode-hwistle, “rage reed/ Wotan’s whistle.” The English word hemlock, literally “hemp leek,” still recalls the rune magic Una laukaR, In Old High German, the plant was known as wuotscerling or wode-scerne, “rage hemlock”.
Hemlock was one of the primary ingredients in the witches’ ointments. Andres Laguna, a sixteenth-century physician from Lorraine, once found a vessel full of “witches’ ointment.” He analyzed its contents and found henbane (Hyoscyamus niger), mandrake root (Mandragora officinarum), and hemlock. He rubbed the ointment onto a woman, who then fell into trance.
In Bohemia, hemlock is reputed to have once been used as an additive to beer. Unfortunately, we know nothing about the effects of such a brew. Perhaps all of the people who tried it died from overdoses . . .
History
A short time after ingestion, the alkaloids produce potentially fatal neuromuscular dysfunction due to failure of the respiratory muscles. Acute toxicity, if not lethal, may resolve in spontaneous recovery, provided further exposure is avoided. Death can be prevented by artificial ventilation until the effects have worn off 48–72 hours later. For an adult, the ingestion of more than 100 mg (0.1 gram) of coniine (about six to eight fresh leaves, or a smaller dose of the seeds or root) may be fatal. Narcotic-like effects can be observed as soon as 30 minutes after ingestion of green leaf matter of the plant, with victims falling asleep and unconsciousness gradually deepening until death a few hours later.
The onset of symptoms is similar to that caused by curare, with an ascending muscular paralysis leading to paralysis of the respiratory muscles, causing death from oxygen deprivation.
It has been observed that poisoned animals return to feed on the plant after initial poisoning. Chronic toxicity affects only pregnant animals when they are poisoned at low levels by C. maculatum during the fetus' organ-formation period; in such cases the offspring is born with malformations, mainly palatoschisis and multiple congenital contractures (arthrogryposis). The damage to the fetus due to chronic toxicity is irreversible. Though arthrogryposis may be surgically corrected in some cases, most of the malformed animals die. Such losses may be underestimated, at least in some regions, because of the difficulty in associating malformations with the much earlier maternal poisoning.
Since no specific antidote is available, prevention is the only way to deal with the production losses caused by the plant. Control with herbicides and grazing with less-susceptible animals (such as sheep) have been suggested. It is a common myth that C. maculatum alkaloids can enter the human food chain via milk and fowl, and scientific studies have disproven these claims.
Medicinal Use
In ancient Greece, hemlock was used to poison condemned prisoners. Conium maculatum is the plant that killed Theramenes, Socrates, Polemarchus, Matthias Corvinus, and Phocion. Socrates, the most famous victim of hemlock poisoning, was accused of impiety and corrupting the minds of the young men of Athens in 399 BC, and his trial gave down his death sentence. He decided to take a potent infusion of hemlock.
Ritual Use
Whole plant
Psychoactive Material
Alkaloids
Chemical structure of one of the two enantiomers, the (S)-(+) isomer, of coniine, where natural mixtures are considered likely racemates (equal mixtures) of this and the (R)-(–) isomer.
C. maculatum is known for being extremely poisonous. Its tissues contain different alkaloids. In flower buds, the major alkaloid found is γ-coniceine. This molecule is transformed into coniine later during the fruit development. The alkaloids are volatile; as such, researchers assume that these alkaloids play an important role in attracting pollinators such as butterflies and bees.
Conium contains the piperidine alkaloids coniine, N-methylconiine, conhydrine, pseudoconhydrine and gamma-coniceine (or g-coniceïne), which is the precursor of the other hemlock alkaloids.
Coniine has a chemical structure and pharmacological properties similar to that of nicotine. Coniine acts directly on the central nervous system through inhibitory action on nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. In high enough concentrations, coniine can be dangerous to humans and livestock. With its high potency, the ingestion of seemingly small doses can easily result in respiratory collapse and death.
The alkaloid content found in C. maculatum also affects the thermoregulatory centre by a phenomenon called peripheral vasoconstriction, resulting in hypothermia in calves. In addition, alkaloid was also found to stimulate the sympathetic ganglia and reduce the influence of the parasympathetic ganglia in rats and rabbits, causing an increased heart rate.
Coniine also has significant toxic effects on the kidneys. The presence of rhabdomyolysis and acute tubular necrosis has been shown in patients who died from hemlock poisoning. A fraction of these patients were also found to have acute kidney injury. Coniine is toxic for the kidneys because it leads to the constriction of the urinary bladder sphincter and eventually the accumulation of urine.
Constituents
no information.
Preparation and Dosage
Toxic effects include rapid paralysis, sensations of cold, lack of sensation, and, finally, death through respiratory paralysis.
Effects
Source: Christian Rätsch: The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants
