Cowbane (Cicuta virosa) or water hemlock as it is also known, is a very poisonous perennialherb of the family Umbelliferae with a hollow, rigid, furrowed stem which is tuberous and horizontally chambered at the base. The basal leaves are long-stalked, bi- or tripinnate with lanceolate, sharply serrated segments. The stalk leaves have sheath-like stalks clasping the stem. The small white flowers are arranged in a compoundumbel. The fruit is a curved, ribbed double achene. Cowbane grows in shallow water marshes, ditches and similar moist locations throughout northern and Central Europe and some parts of Britain. Research Cowbane
Hemlock (Conium maculatum) is a poisonous biennialherb of the family Umbelliferae supposed to be identical with the plant koneion of the Greeks.. It is a tall, erect, branching biennial, with a smooth, shining, hollow stem usually marked with purple spots. It has elegant, much divided leaves which when bruised emit a nauseous odour. The flowers are white in compound umbels of ten or more rays surrounded by a general involucre of three to seven leaflets.
Hemlock is found in Britain and throughout Europe and temperate Asia in waste places, banks, and under walls. It is said to be fatal to cows when they eat it, but that horses, goats, and sheep may feed upon it without danger. In the human subject it causes paralysis, convulsions, and death. The poison administered to Socrates is supposed to have been a decoction of it, though others are of opinion that the potion was obtained from water-hemlock (Cicuta virosa).
Hemlock is a powerful sedative, and is used medicinally. The extract is considered the best preparation. It was formerly used as a substitute for, or as an accompaniment to opium. It has been found very useful in chronic rheumatism and in hooping-cough, in allaying the pain of irritable sores and cancerous ulcers. The virtues of hemlock reside in an alkaline principle termed coma or coniine. Research Hemlock
Tsuga is a genus of hardy evergreen trees of the family Coniferae, including the hemlock spruce. The leaves are narrow, and the flowers monoecious. The cones are subglobose in form. Research Tsuga
Water-hemlock (Oenanthe crocata) is a British waterside plant growing to a height of one metre with clustered tuberous roots, glossy thrice-pinnate leaves, and wedge-shaped leaflets. It belongs to the family Umbelliferae, and bears white flowers in late summer. The whole plant is poisonous. Research Water-hemlock
Alkaloid is a term applied to a class of nitrogenous compounds having basic properties, found in living plants, usually in combination with organic acids. They are usually given names ending in ine, as morphine, quinine, aconitine, nicotine, caffeine, etc. Most alkaloids occur in plants, but some are formed by decomposition. Most natural alkaloids contain carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, but a few contain no oxygen. The nitrogen they contain imparts to them basic properties - they are organicbases - and hence they all form salts with acids. They all possess a pronounced bittertaste, and the poisonous nature of many plants, e.g. hemlock, yew, deadly nightshade, etc, are due to the alkaloids they contain. Although formed originally within the plant, it has been found possible to prepare several of these alkaloids by artificial means. Research Alkaloid
Conia also known as Coniine or cicutine is a volatile alkaloid, the active poisonous principle of hemlock. It exists in all parts of the plant, but especially in the not quite ripe seed. When pure it is a colourless oily liquid changing by exposure to the air to a brown fluid, and ultimately to a resinousbitter mass. It has been prepared synthetically since at least 1905 and is a derivative of pyridine. It has a nauseous taste and very disagreeable odour, sharp and choking when strong, but in small quantities like that of mice. It is exceedingly poisonous, causing death by paralysis of the muscles used in respiration. Research Conia
Abbreviations
Research Centripetal
