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Do These Flowers That Look so Dainty Cause Such Concerns?
Let’s look at the Monkshood.
This herbaceous wildflower grows in mountain meadows throughout the northern hemisphere. The posterior sepal of the flower resembles the cowls worn by monks, hence the name.
Another name for monkshood is Wolfsbane. It gets it’s name for being the poison used to kill carnivores such as, wolves and panthers, in the 18th century. It was put into raw meat to bait the animals.
This flower causes numbness, nerve dysfunction, and heart toxicities, such as a slow heart rate, low blood pressure, and rhythms that seriously affect the heart. Usually, this causes death.
Aconitine and related alkaloids can cause heart poisons and they act on the sodium channels of excitable membranes. Oh, these alkaloids make them excited, alright.
Monkshood has been used for the pains of neuralgia, sciatica, arthritis, gout, rheumatism, pneumonia, measles, nervous fever, and chronic skin problems in Chinese Medicine. It was said to lower fevers as well. Despite the numerous issues that it was said to cure, monkshood is among the most poisonous of plants. Small doses can cause painful death in a few hours.
Toxic Dose
A lethal dose of pure aconitine in an adult is 3–6 mg. Severe poisoning has…
