Veratrum album

Taxobox
name = White Hellebore


image_width = 180px
image_caption =
regnum = Plantae
divisio = Magnoliophyta
classis = Liliopsida
ordo = Liliales
familia = Melanthiaceae
genus = "Veratrum"
species = "V. album"
binomial = "Veratrum album"
binomial_authority = L.

"Veratrum album", commonly known as the False Helleborine (also known as White Hellebore, European White Hellebore, White Veratrum; syn. "Veratrum lobelianum" Bernh. [http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Veratrum+album "Veratrum album"] at Plants For A Future] ), is a medicinal plant [ [http://www.henriettesherbal.com/eclectic/felter/veratrum-albu.html Felter, Harvey Wickes. (1922) "The Eclectic Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics."] ] [ [http://www.henriettesherbal.com/eclectic/kings/veratrum-albu.html Felter, Harvey Wickes; Lloyd, John Uri. (1898) "King's American Dispensatory."] ] of the Liliaceae (lily family) or Melanthiaceae which is native to Europe.

Plant description

The plant is a perennial herb with a stout vertical rhizome covered with remnants of old leaf sheaths. The stems are stout, simple, 50 to 175cm tall. They have been mistaken for yellow gentian, "Gentiana lutea", which is used in beverages, resulting in poisoning. [PMID 15773425]

Uses

The root is very poisonous, with a paralyzing effect on the nervous system. In two cases of fatal poisoning from eating the seeds, the toxins veratridine and cevadine were present in the blood at 0.17–0.40 nanograms/milliliter and 0.32–0.48 nanograms/milliliter, respectively. In 1983 sneezing powders produced from the herb in West Germany were reported to have caused severe intoxications in Scandinavia. [PMID 6887310]

History

In antiquity, an effective drug based on white hellebore and a sesamoid (probably "Reseda alba") was elaborated by the physicians of Antikyra, a city of Phokis in Greece. [See the vast collection of ancient sources in Hahnemann, S., "Disertatio de helleborismo veterum" (Leipzig 1812)]

References