Veratrum nigrum is a coarse, highly poisonous perennial

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

 herb

Herb

Except in botanical usage, an herb is "any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume" or "a part of such a plant as used in cooking"...

 of the Melanthiaceae

Melanthiaceae

Melanthiaceae is a family of flowering perennial herbs in the Northern Hemisphere. The family has been recognized by relatively few taxonomists, and the circumscription has varied...

 family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

. As is indicated by its name, the plant is not a hellebore

Hellebore

Commonly known as hellebores, members of the genus Helleborus comprise approximately 20 species of herbaceous perennial flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae, within which it gave its name to the tribe of Helleboreae...

 (genus Helleborus), but from a closely related genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

, Veratrum

Veratrum

Veratrum is a genus of coarse, highly poisonous perennial herbs of the Melanthiaceae family. In English they are known as the False hellebores or corn lilies. Members of Veratrum are known both in western herbalism and traditional Chinese medicine as toxic herbs to be used with great caution...

. The plant was widely known even in ancient times. For example, Lucretius

Lucretius

Titus Lucretius Carus was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is an epic philosophical poem laying out the beliefs of Epicureanism, De rerum natura, translated into English as On the Nature of Things or "On the Nature of the Universe".Virtually no details have come down concerning...

 (ca. 99 BC – ca. 55 BC) and Pliny the Elder

Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...

 (23 AD – August 25, 79) both of whom knew of its medicinal emetic as well as deadly toxic properties.

Distribution and description

Veratrum nigrum is native to 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...

 and 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...

. The plant can exist in hardiness zone

Hardiness zone

A hardiness zone is a geographically defined area in which a specific category of plant life is capable of growing, as defined by climatic conditions, including its ability to withstand the minimum temperatures of the zone...

s 4 through 7. It grows best in shade or partial shade, with wet or moist grounds conditions. Any nutrient-rich soil supports its growth, although one source observes that it prefers calcium-rich soil. Another source observes that the bed must be fairly deep.

The plant has a robust black rhizome

Rhizome

In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...

. Simple angiosperm leaves arranged in a whorled pattern emerge from the base of the plant. Each whorl is decussate (rotated by half the angle between the leaves in the whorl below), with only two or three whorls around the base. Each leaf is sessile (attaching directly to the plant), and about 12 inches (30.5 cm) in length. The leaves are broad, glabrous (smooth), lanceolate

Leaf shape

In botany, leaf shape is characterised with the following terms :* Acicular : Slender and pointed, needle-like* Acuminate : Tapering to a long point...

 in shape, with entire (smooth) edges. The veins in the leaves branch immediately from the base and run parallel through the leaf, leaving a pleated look. Long, green, coarse, woody spike racemes

Raceme

A raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called pedicels — along the axis. In botany, axis means a shoot, in this case one bearing the flowers. In a raceme, the oldest flowers are borne...

 branch off in decussate patterns from the main trunk, with short pedicels

Pedicel (botany)

A pedicel is a stem that attaches single flowers to the main stem of the inflorescence. It is the branches or stalks that hold each flower in an inflorescence that contains more than one flower....

 supporting a single flower. The flowers are purple-black, giving the plant its name.

The Veratrum nigrum blooms in early summer for several weeks, but goes dormant in intense summer heat. It tends to grow in colonies, and attains a height of about 4 feet (1.2 m). Its racemes branch out to about 24 inches (61 cm) in width. The seed heads are crimson in color. Plants grown from seeds will generally push through the earth and sprout leaves in early spring.

Taxonomy

There are several subspecies:

• Veratrum nigrum japonicum
• Veratrum nigrum maackii
• Veratrum nigrum microcarpum
• Veratrum nigrum parviflorum
• Veratrum nigrum reymondianum
• Veratrum nigrum ussuriense

Garden use

Veratrum nigrum was used as an ornamental plant

Ornamental plant

Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as house plants, for cut flowers and specimen display...

 in European gardens at least as far back as 1773. It was in common use in 1828, and Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...

 grew it in his garden in the 1840s. The plant is still widely used in gardens in Europe and Asia because of its striking black flowers. It is also used to add height to a garden, and as a means of providing a darker backdrop to more brightly colored plants and flowers. The large seed pods weather winter well (tending not to drop in high wind), and it can be a striking winter ornamental seedpod plant as well. However, it is difficult to find and very expensive in the United States.

Cultivation may be done by seed or by division. However, a plant generally takes seven years to reach maturity and flower. Snail

Snail

Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...

s and slug

Slug

Slug is a common name that is normally applied to any gastropod mollusc that lacks a shell, has a very reduced shell, or has a small internal shell...

s feed on the plant's rhizomes and leaves, so gardeners must take care to keep these pests away.

Toxicity

All parts of the herb are highly toxic. However, the highest concentrations of toxins tend to be in the rhizome. Toxicity varies widely depending on the method of preparation (extract, water extract, etc.), and the method of application. Just 1.8 gram (0.0634931317892015 oz) per 1 kilograms (2.2 lb) can cause death due to cardiac arrhythmia. Death has even occurred at a dosage as low as 0.6 gram (0.0211643772630672 oz).

Veratrum nigrum contains more than 200 steroid

Steroid

A steroid is a type of organic compound that contains a characteristic arrangement of four cycloalkane rings that are joined to each other. Examples of steroids include the dietary fat cholesterol, the sex hormones estradiol and testosterone, and the anti-inflammatory drug dexamethasone.The core...

-derived alkaloid

Alkaloid

Alkaloids are a group of naturally occurring chemical compounds that contain mostly basic nitrogen atoms. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Also some synthetic compounds of similar structure are attributed to alkaloids...

s, including isorubijervine, jervine

Jervine

Jervine is a steroidal alkaloid with molecular formula C27H39NO3 which is derived from the Veratrum plant genus. Similar to cyclopamine, which also occurs in the Veratrum genus, it is a teratogen implicated in birth defects when consumed by animals during a certain period of their...

, pseudojervine, rubijervine, tienmuliumine, tienmuliluminine, and verazine. The herb causes irritation of mucosal membranes. When ingested, the irritation of the mucosal membranes of the stomach and intestines will cause nausea and vomiting. If the herb is introduced to the nose, this mucosal irritation will cause sneezing and coughing. Ingestion can also cause bradycardia

Bradycardia

Bradycardia , in the context of adult medicine, is the resting heart rate of under 60 beats per minute, though it is seldom symptomatic until the rate drops below 50 beat/min. It may cause cardiac arrest in some patients, because those with bradycardia may not be pumping enough oxygen to their heart...

 (slow heart rate), hyperactivity, and hypotension

Hypotension

In physiology and medicine, hypotension is abnormally low blood pressure, especially in the arteries of the systemic circulation. It is best understood as a physiologic state, rather than a disease. It is often associated with shock, though not necessarily indicative of it. Hypotension is the...

 (low blood pressure). In high concentrations, topical contact can cause skin irritation, excessive tears from the eyes, and redness.

Classic symptoms of Veratrum nigrum toxicity include blurred vision, confusion, headache, lightheadedness, nausea, stomach pain, excessive sweating, and vomiting. In severe cases, heart arrhythmia, muscle cramps, extreme muscle twitching

Myoclonus

Myoclonus is brief, involuntary twitching of a muscle or a group of muscles. It describes a medical sign and, generally, is not a diagnosis of a disease. Brief twitches are perfectly normal. The myoclonic twitches are usually caused by sudden muscle contractions; they also can result from brief...

, paresthesia

Paresthesia

Paresthesia , spelled "paraesthesia" in British English, is a sensation of tingling, burning, pricking, or numbness of a person's skin with no apparent long-term physical effect. It is more generally known as the feeling of "pins and needles" or of a limb "falling asleep"...

 (the feeling of "pins and needles" all over the body), seizures, weakness, and unconsciousness occur. Death may follow.

Toxic symptoms generally resolve themselves after 24 to 48 hours. Supportive treatment for the symptoms is usually administered. Because extreme vomiting occurs, decontamination (e.g., stomach pumping

Gastric lavage

Gastric lavage, also commonly called stomach pumping or Gastric irrigation, is the process of cleaning out the contents of the stomach. It has been used for over 200 years as a means of eliminating poisons from the stomach. Such devices are normally used on a person who has ingested a poison or...

 or the ingestion of activated charcoal

Activated carbon

Activated carbon, also called activated charcoal, activated coal or carbo activatus, is a form of carbon that has been processed to make it extremely porous and thus to have a very large surface area available for adsorption or chemical reactions.The word activated in the name is sometimes replaced...

) is usually not implemented unless ingestion has occurred within one hour. Atropine

Atropine

Atropine is a naturally occurring tropane alkaloid extracted from deadly nightshade , Jimson weed , mandrake and other plants of the family Solanaceae. It is a secondary metabolite of these plants and serves as a drug with a wide variety of effects...

 is usually administered to counteract the low heart rate, and sympathomimetic drugs and liquids administered to raise the blood pressure.

The herb is also a known teratogen

Teratology

Teratology is the study of abnormalities of physiological development. It is often thought of as the study of human birth defects, but it is much broader than that, taking in other non-birth developmental stages, including puberty; and other non-human life forms, including plants.- Etymology :The...

. However, no data exists on whether it can cause birth defects in human beings.

Medicinal usage

Administered in low doses internally, the dry root of Veratrum nigrum can lower blood pressure

Blood pressure

Blood pressure is the pressure exerted by circulating blood upon the walls of blood vessels, and is one of the principal vital signs. When used without further specification, "blood pressure" usually refers to the arterial pressure of the systemic circulation. During each heartbeat, BP varies...

 and slow heart rate, possibly by stimulating the vagus nerve

Vagus nerve

The vagus nerve , also called pneumogastric nerve or cranial nerve X, is the tenth of twelve paired cranial nerves...

. It has been used to treat hypertension

Hypertension

Hypertension or high blood pressure is a cardiac chronic medical condition in which the systemic arterial blood pressure is elevated. What that means is that the heart is having to work harder than it should to pump the blood around the body. Blood pressure involves two measurements, systolic and...

 and cardiac failure, and to treat pre-eclampsia

Pre-eclampsia

Pre-eclampsia or preeclampsia is a medical condition in which hypertension arises in pregnancy in association with significant amounts of protein in the urine....

 during pregnancy. It has been found to act as an antibiotic

Antibiotic

An antibacterial is a compound or substance that kills or slows down the growth of bacteria.The term is often used synonymously with the term antibiotic; today, however, with increased knowledge of the causative agents of various infectious diseases, antibiotic has come to denote a broader range of...

 and insecticide

Insecticide

An insecticide is a pesticide used against insects. They include ovicides and larvicides used against the eggs and larvae of insects respectively. Insecticides are used in agriculture, medicine, industry and the household. The use of insecticides is believed to be one of the major factors behind...

. Cyclopamine

Cyclopamine

Cyclopamine is a naturally occurring chemical that belongs to the group of steroidal jerveratrum alkaloids. It is a teratogen isolated from the corn lily that causes usually fatal birth defects. It can prevent the fetal brain from dividing into two lobes and cause the development of a single eye...

 (11-deoxojervine) is one of the alkaloids isolated from the plant which interferes with the hedgehog signaling pathway

Hedgehog signaling pathway

In a growing embryo, cells develop differently in the head or tail end of the embryo, the left or right, and other positions. They also form segments which develop into different body parts. The hedgehog signaling pathway gives cells information that they need to make the embryo develop properly....

 (Hh). Cyclopamine is under investigation as a possible treatment for several cancers (such as basal cell carcinoma

Basal cell carcinoma

Basal-cell carcinoma is the most common type of skin cancer. It rarely metastasizes or kills. However, because it can cause significant destruction and disfigurement by invading surrounding tissues, it is still considered malignant. Statistically, approximately 3 out of 10 Caucasians may develop a...

 and medulloblastoma

Medulloblastoma

Medulloblastoma is a highly malignant primary brain tumor that originates in the cerebellum or posterior fossa.Previously, medulloblastomas were thought to represent a subset of primitive neuroectodermal tumor of the posterior fossa...

) and skin disorders (such as psoriasis

Psoriasis

Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease that appears on the skin. It occurs when the immune system mistakes the skin cells as a pathogen, and sends out faulty signals that speed up the growth cycle of skin cells. Psoriasis is not contagious. However, psoriasis has been linked to an increased risk of...

), which result from excessive Hh activity.

The dry rhizomes of Veratrum nigrum have been used in Chinese herbalism. Collectively, the drugs created from all false hellebore species are called "li lu" (藜蘆) in China. Li lu is administered internally as an emetic, and used topically to kill parasites (such as tinea

Tinea

Tinea is a general term used to describe skin mycoses. The term ringworm is even less precise, but is usually considered a synonym.It is sometimes equated with dermatophytosis, and it is true that most conditions identified as "tinea" are members of the imperfect fungi that make up the dermatophytes...

 and scabies

Scabies

Scabies , known colloquially as the seven-year itch, is a contagious skin infection that occurs among humans and other animals. It is caused by a tiny and usually not directly visible parasite, the mite Sarcoptes scabiei, which burrows under the host's skin, causing intense allergic itching...

) or to stop itching. It was most widely used to treat vascular disease

Vascular disease

Vascular disease is a form of cardiovascular disease primarily affecting the blood vessels.Some conditions, such as angina and myocardial ischemia, can be considered both vascular diseases and heart diseases .Cigarette smoking is the major risk factor....

. Some herbalists refuse to prescribe li lu internally, citing the extreme difficulty in preparing a safe and effective dosage.

Other uses

In Asia, an extract of the herb is mixed with water in a 1 percent to 5 percent solution and used in many rural areas to kill flea

Flea

Flea is the common name for insects of the order Siphonaptera which are wingless insects with mouthparts adapted for piercing skin and sucking blood...

s, their larvae, and their eggs in toilets.