The Poison Path: Drop Dosage Plants

    Dedicated to one of my greatest teachers Michael Moore, who began classes teaching about toxic medicinals and taught me to feel comfortable yet careful when using them in practice. This post is an addendum to a class I teach where we go into the applications and cautions of the plants listed. What differentiates between medicine […]

    Dedicated to one of my greatest teachers Michael Moore, who began classes teaching about toxic medicinals and taught me to feel comfortable yet careful when using them in practice. This post is an addendum to a class I teach where we go into the applications and cautions of the plants listed.

    What differentiates between medicine and poison is dosage

    Herbalists that simply use herbs in place of drugs are missing out on the richness and depth that herbal medicine encompasses. The application of herbal medicine in a holistic practice is much more complex that substituting one thing for another. Herbs are as beautiful, messy and weird as we are, which is why whole plant medicine can have much more breadth and depth in practice. This is a bit of a disclaimer to say that this class is not a straightforward leap into using toxic plants for drug like effects in place of a drug. Many of the plants we are discussing are used in formula may act as a catalyst, or together with other plants form a synergy or amplify certain actions in the body. I highly recommend that you try these plants on yourself and get them from a reputable source before using them in clinic. Some may never be safe for a clinical situation, but are good to know about.
    What I see in modern day use of toxic botanicals in herbal medicine is either:
    Ignoring the entire idea that we should be concerned with toxicity. The result being that many of herbal medicines are used improperly
    Avoiding the use of anything that may be seen as “too strong”
    Instead, I propose learning a healthy, humble understanding of plant pharmacology and how to approach this more advanced study of herbal medicine.

    Historical use of toxic botanicals as visionary plants in early spiritual practices: Flying ointment and other stories from long ago
    Historical use of toxic botanicals in early Physiomedicalism and Eclectic Medicine in the United States
    Modern use of toxic botanicals in practice
    How to dose with toxic botanicals.
    Safety: sourcing
    Safety: what does an overdose look and feel like?

    Plants Constituents that could act as toxins

    Alkaloids
    Glycosides
    Minerals
    Oxalates
    Photosensitizing Compounds
    Phytotoxins (Toxalbumins)
    Polypeptides and Amines
    Resins

    Problems with the evidence in scientific literature: we are not cows

    >Monkshood
    ACONITUM SP
    Aconitine is thought to be the key toxin. Ingestion of even a small amount results in severe gastrointestinal upset and death may follow from a slowing of the heart

    >Wind Flower
    ANEMONE SPP
    Protoanemonin is thought to be a key toxin. Contact dermatitis may result from topical contact . Ingestion may cause gastrointestinal upset, or even paralysis.

    >Arnica
    ARNICA
    Helenalin is thought to be a key toxin. It can produce gastrointestinal upset and and bleeding of the digestive tract .

    >Bleeding Heart
    DICENTRA FORMOSA
    Protopine and isoquinoline are thought to be key toxins. It can produce convulsions, death, drowsiness. They act as GI tract irritants and CNS stimulants.

    >Bittersweet Nightshade
    SOLANUM DULCAMARA
    Solanine is thought to be a key toxin. It has the potential of paralyzing chest muscles. “In large doses it causes dryness and heat with stinging pain in the fauces, accompanied with thirst, sickness at stomach, vomiting, diarrhoea, prostration or syncope, and spasmodic twitchings. With some persons it depresses the action of the heart and arteries, and causes a moderate degree of lividity on the hands and face. The head usually feels heavy and dizzy, and a cutaneous erythema may be developed.”King’s Dispensatory

    >Virgin’s Bower
    CLEMATIS
    Protoanemonin is thought to be a key toxin. Contact dermatitis may result from topical contact . Ingestion may cause gastrointestinal upset, or even paralysis.

    >Devil’s Trumpet
    DATURA
    Atropine, scopolamine, and hyoscyamine are key toxins. May also contain toxic levels of nitrates. May cause contact dermatitis, drowsiness, delirium, dry mouth, heart irregularities, hallucinations and even death

    >Vomitwort
    LOBELIA INFLATA
    Lobeline is thought to be a key toxin as an emetics. Death, when due to lobeline, is said to result from respiratory paralysis…Or is it? “The Thompson Trials”

    >Yellow Jessamine
    GELSEMIUM
    Gelsemine and Gelseminine are thought to be key toxins. It can cause paralysis, convulsions and occasionally death from asphyxia.

    >Poke
    PHYTOLACCA
    Triterpene saponins and phytolaccin are thought to be key toxins. In excess it may cause diarrhoea, considerable vomiting, convulsions, and death.