Poisonous plants - Aconitum carmichaelii

Aconitum talk – poisonous plants, January 2019

Jennifer Wright

In October last year I was asked to do a talk to a group of horticulturists about anything I wanted to, as long as it focused on a plant. It’s a golden opportunity to give a presentation about the topic of your choice. As it was the weekend before Halloween, naturally I chose the Aconitum or Monkshood. Below is a transcript of the notes I wrote for the talk. It should all be in the right order so hopefully you can follow: 

Chosen plant of choice: Aconitum carmichaelii ‘The Grim Reaper’ 

Where is it and how did I come across it: This monkshood is in the walled garden at The Garden House, Devon. I noticed it one day while I was dead heading Dahlias and decided to check it out properly. 

Parentage/Provenance: I couldn’t find the exact parentage of ‘The Grim Reaper’ but carmichaelii is native to central and west China. 

Common names: This plant has so many common names, it made me feel dizzy: Chinese monkshood, wolfsbane, Carmichael’s monkshood, old wife’s hood, tiger’s bane, dog’s bane, mouse bane (supposedly by its ability to kill a mouse from its smell) and devil’s helmet. 

Family: Ranunculaceae

 

Description: This is a highly toxic herbaceous perennial with dark green leathery leaves, panicles of violet blue flowers and an upright habit. It can grow up to 1.5 metres tall but the one at the Garden House was at around 50cm this year, possibly due to the Beast from the East. 

Cultivation: Likes full sun or partial shade in a sheltered position. Loam to clay soil and preferably acid to neutral. Always use gloves when handling this plant. 

Propagation: Divide in the autumn or spring. Plants can sometimes be slow to re-establish. 

General information:

Aconitum napellus is the European species and is the true Monkshood species.

Aconitum lycoctonum is actually wolsbane and is also native to Europe.

Incidently, this is the plant that Severus Snape uses to brew a potion for Remus Lupin to help him prevent his werewolf transformation in the Harry Potter series.

All Aconitum species are poisonous to humans. 

Poisons: The distinct taste of Aconitum means that accidental poisonings are rare. It is described as very bitter followed by a burning sensation then complete numbness of the mouth. Ingestion and skin absorption are the main concerns for Aconitum with gardeners. 

Symptoms: tingling sensation and then numbness of the mouth, stomach pain, muscular paralysis, heart arrhythmia and then eventual death. 

Chemical composition: Aconitum has 3 main organic alkaloid compounds and the combination results in death. Aconitine – This is responsible for heart arrhythmia. Atisine – numbness, tingling and muscular effects. Veatchine – acts as a starting compound for the others. 

Poisoning incidents: I am going to talk about 3 incidents of Aconite poisoning but there are a lot to sift through online and historical records. Both deliberate and accidental. The 1^st serves as a reminder that misidentification of plants can be fatal. 

1.      On July 30^th 2004, Canadian actor Andre Noble ate Aconitum, thinking it was wild parsnip, while hiking. He died hours later.

2.      Curry Killer! January 2009 was a jealousy driven murder. Lakhvir Singh poisoned her lover Lakhvinder Cheema and his fiance by adding an Aconite based herbal remedy to leftover curry in their fridge, made from Indian Monkshood. The man died hours later and his fiancé survived.

3.      Medical murders! Dr. George Henry Lamson poisoned his brother in law Percy Malcolm John in 1881. He had slowly been poisoning him for a while in the newly developed soluble capsules which he had access to as a doctor under the pretence for treating him for other ailments. This wasn’t fast enough, he brought his brother in law a cake laced with Aconite when he visited his home. He was convicted on murder and hanged.  

History, uses and mythology:

Aconitum has several possible name meanings or origins.

1.      Could come from the Akon which is an ancient Greek word for dart or arrow, referring to the plants use.

2.      According to Theophrastus (ancient Greek plant biologist, pupil of Plato and successor of Aristotle) the name comes from the village of Akonai which was land occupied by the Mariandynoi people. The village doesn’t exist today, area in Turkey. The modern nearby village has a cave which is said to house the entrance to the underworld which was guarded by Cerberus, the great 3-headed hound of Hades. His task was to prevent the dead from leaving and the living form sneaking in. Interestingly, in other Greek mythological stories Hekate, goddess of witchcraft, transformed the foam from Cerberus’s mouth into Aconitums when Hercules dragged Cerberus from the Underworld as his 12^th test. 

If there is one thing I have learnt while researching for this is that people really like to poison pointy things.

A lycoctonum: ancient Greeks used it to poison arrow heads to shoot wolves.

A napellus: used by the Aboriginal people of the Kamchatka peninsula in the North Pacific Ocean. Poison harpoons for whaling, each harpoon had a signature. More whales meant that they were more successful. The dead where rendered down and body fat was sued to apply the Aconite to harpoon heads as a symbolic skill passed on.

A carmichaelii: used by Ancient Chinese to poison arrows so that when injured soldiers pulled out an arrow they would die anyway from poisoning. 

Recent History: Nazi scientists began experimenting with poisoning bullets towards the end of World War 2.

In medieval times, there was a herbal potion called the Witches Flying ointment. It included henbane, monkshood, foxglove and deadly nightshade. Weirdly enough, atropine (nightshade) and digitoxin (foxgloves) act as antidotes for aconitum poisoning in the right doses.

 Some modern-day wiccans believe that Aconitum can be used to enhance spells for invisibility and protection from evil.

I hope you all enjoyed this post. I am sorry that there isn’t a picture to put up with this post but as it is January Aconitum is in short supply until the spring.