Echium plantagineum, commonly known as Purple Viper's Bugloss, is a species of Echium

Echium

Echium is a genus of 60 species of flowering plant in the family Boraginaceae.The type species is Echium vulgare, viper's bugloss. Species of Echium are native to North Africa, Europe, Madeira and the Canary Islands, but have also become invasive in southern Africa and Australia...

, native to western and southern Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 (from southern England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 south to Iberia

Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...

 and east to the Crimea

Crimea

Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...

), northern Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, and southwestern Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

 (east to Georgia

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

). It has also been introduced to Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 and United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and is an invasive plant. Due to a high concentration of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in the shoot it is poisonous to grazing livestock, especially those with a simple digestive system like horses. The toxins are cumulative in the liver and death results from too much Paterson's curse in the diet.

Description

Echium plantagineum is a winter annual plant

Annual plant

An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates, flowers, and dies in a year or season. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed...

 growing to 20–60 cm tall, with rough, hairy, lanceolate leaves

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 up to 14 cm long. The flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s are purple, 15–20 mm long, with all the stamen

Stamen

The stamen is the pollen producing reproductive organ of a flower...

s protruding, and borne on a branched spike.

Invasive species

E. plantagineum has become an invasive species

Invasive species

"Invasive species", or invasive exotics, is a nomenclature term and categorization phrase used for flora and fauna, and for specific restoration-preservation processes in native habitats, with several definitions....

 in Australia, where it is also known as Paterson's Curse, Patterson's Curse or Salvation Jane (particularly in South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

). Other names are Blueweed, Lady Campbell Weed or Riverina Bluebell.

In the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 the species has become naturalised in parts of California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

 and some eastern states. In Oregon it has been declared a noxious weed.

Medical research

Seeds of the E. plantagineum plant were found in a study funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (part of the National Institutes of Health) to lower triglycerides. Researchers at Wake Forest University and the Harvard Center for Botanical Lipids fed mice a diet supplemented with echium oil and found that it had benefit similar to fish oil in lowering triglyceride levels in blood plasma and the liver.

Cosmetics

Echium oil contains high levels of alpha linolenic acid (ALA), gamma linolenic acid (GLA) and stearidonic acid (SDA), making it valuable in cosmetic and skin care applications, with further potential as a functional food, as an alternative to fish oils.

Toxicity

Echium plantagineum contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids and is poisonous. When eaten in large quantities, it cause reduced livestock weight or even (in severe cases) death. Paterson's Curse can kill horses and irritate the udders of dairy cows and the skin of humans. After the 2003 Canberra bushfires over 40 recorded horses were put down after eating the weed. Because the pyrrolizidine alkaloids can also be found in the nectar of Paterson's curse the honey made from it should be blended with other honey to avoid the toxins entering the human food chain in high concentrations. The alkaloid levels in one teaspoon of salvation jane honey are generally above the EU recommended weekly minimum human consumption for these chemicals.