Hemlock water dropwort multiple poisoning

[falling rain]

http://emj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/19/5/472

Just found this interesting article in a medical publication.

Luckily for these guys they only ate a little of the plant in the curry.
I also read/heard somewhere that a Botanic illustrator once picked some of this plant and the took it home to draw and the fumes given off by it made him giddy and he had to leave the room. One to leave well alone.
The plant 'Hemlock' is also an umbelifer as is Hemlock water dropwort and is also lethal. Socrates was given a cup of Hemlock to drink as a way of executing him, and was one way they did it in Ancient Greece................Nice

 

[jongir]

Heres a pic if anybody is interested

 

[falling rain]

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?i...+dropwort&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&safe=active&sa=G

and some more pictures on this link

 

[mark a.]

Nasty stuff, then! In my ignorance, when I looked at the picture I thought "cow parsley" which I believe is edible - not good to get those mixed up! Looking at pictures side by side I can see that they're very different, but it's always a bit scary when something so innocuous looking can be so lethal.

 

[OldJimbo]

They were pretty lucky. the nasty one around here is cicuta douglasii - water hemlock:
http://www.oldjimbo.com/plants/wh.html
I doubt that I've smelled anything as delicious as the water hemlock - but I sure wouldn't recommend going around digging up the stuff to find out. My buddy in Alaska told me that the local Indians started getting sick after eating umbeliferae and since they really know their plants suspected some sort of cross pollination. I figure a simpler answer - just a few broken roots of water hemlock contaminating water.

 

[scanker]

In one of the early Cook on the Wild Side episodes, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall is with an old gent whose name I can't remember, but he's teaching him about hedgerow plants. HFW went to pick some of what he thought was an edible herb, only for the old bloke to tell him it was hemlock water dropwort. I can't remember what exactly HFW thought it was, but whatever it was it "would never grow with its feet in water" (which the hemlock water dropwort was).

 

[cronos]

Some more info on the Hemlock:

Hemlock is a very poisonous plant that has a long history of medicinal use, though it is very rarely used in modern herbalism. It is a narcotic plant that sedates and relieves pain. The plant contains coniine, an extremely toxic substance that can also cause congenital defects.
The whole plant is analgesic, antispasmodic, emetic, galactofuge and sedative. It is a traditional folk treatment for cancer and was formerly widely used internally in very small doses to treat a variety of complaints including tumours, epilepsy, whooping cough, rabies and as an antidote to strychnine poisoning.
It is still used externally, usually in ointments and oils, in the treatment of mastitis, malignant tumours (especially breast cancer) anal fissure and haemorrhoids. The leaves and stems should be harvested when the first fruits are forming, since they are then at their most active medicinally. The fruits are gathered either when fully ripe, or before they turn from green to yellow, and are then dried.
Because of the extremely toxic nature of this herb, it is seldom employed nowadays.
A homeopathic remedy is prepared from a tincture of the fresh plant, harvested when in flower. It is used for treating complaints such as dizziness, coughs, insomnia, exhaustion, arteriosclerosis and prostate problems.

Leaves – can be cooked, although the plant is toxic, plants found in the south of England are comparatively harmless and the leaves are used as a pot-herb and can be dried for later use. The toxic principle is said to be destroyed by thorough cooking or drying, however caution is advised, especially on the remarks about plants in southern England.


Cronos

 

[Wayne]

Some more info on the Hemlock:

Hemlock is a very poisonous plant that has a long history of medicinal use, though it is very rarely used in modern herbalism. It is a narcotic plant that sedates and relieves pain. The plant contains coniine, an extremely toxic substance that can also cause congenital defects.
The whole plant is analgesic, antispasmodic, emetic, galactofuge and sedative. It is a traditional folk treatment for cancer and was formerly widely used internally in very small doses to treat a variety of complaints including tumours, epilepsy, whooping cough, rabies and as an antidote to strychnine poisoning.
It is still used externally, usually in ointments and oils, in the treatment of mastitis, malignant tumours (especially breast cancer) anal fissure and haemorrhoids. The leaves and stems should be harvested when the first fruits are forming, since they are then at their most active medicinally. The fruits are gathered either when fully ripe, or before they turn from green to yellow, and are then dried.
Because of the extremely toxic nature of this herb, it is seldom employed nowadays.
A homeopathic remedy is prepared from a tincture of the fresh plant, harvested when in flower. It is used for treating complaints such as dizziness, coughs, insomnia, exhaustion, arteriosclerosis and prostate problems.

Leaves – can be cooked, although the plant is toxic, plants found in the south of England are comparatively harmless and the leaves are used as a pot-herb and can be dried for later use. The toxic principle is said to be destroyed by thorough cooking or drying, however caution is advised, especially on the remarks about plants in southern England.


Cronos

Cronos i am currently writing an article about hemlock for my site. What was the source of your info?

 

[cronos]

I got it from the Plant for a future data base.

Cronos

 

[bombadil]

Hemlock water dropwort, (Oeneanthe crocata, if I've spelt it correctly!) is one of the nastiest things you could make the mistake of eating here in the UK. In Grieves Herbal (which there is an online version of, I think) there are a few stories about it, such as the one where a group of labourers pick some of the leaves to add to their sandwiches, and the farmer comes along later in the day to find them all dead! I also saw a story on some TV programme a few years back about two kayakers on the Dart, both "Survival" experts (?), one of whom mistook the roots for water parsnip and came very close to an unpleasent end. Apparently it was his personal fitness that saved him Stories like this highlight the danger of eating anything that you havn't positively identified, It should also be pointed out that there are a number of other members of the genus Oeneanthe which are also lethal and quite common in many areas. The umbellifers (Apiaceae) can be very difficult to identify in the field, so great caution should be exercised whenever dealing with this family!

 

[falling rain]

It's also good to remember that a plant described as 'edible' in any given book dosn't neccesarily mean everyones system can tolerate it. It's best to gather info from as many sources as possible before trying a small sample.
I've come across conflicting info sometimes about the edibility of plants one being Lesser celandine roots. I think 'Huge Furry Whittling Tool' says in a cook on the wild side ( I think it was that book) they're edible raw and RM advises that they should be cooked and are poisonous raw.
Corriander makes my hands sore and red when I'm prepping it for cooking but I can eat it happily cooked into a curry with no ill effects (never tried it raw though, but if it does that to my hands I'd better leave it I think.
Umbelifers are one of the harder types of plants to learn and some are indeed edible (pignut tuber, young hogweed leaves) but some are lethal (Hemlock and Hemlock water dropwort)