Aconitum

This article is about the herb sometimes known as wolfsbane. For other uses, see Wolfsbane (disambiguation).

Monkshood
Aconitum variegatum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Ranunculales
Family:	Ranunculaceae
Genus:	Aconitum L., 1753
Species
See below

Aconitum ( /ˌækəˈnaɪtəm/ A-co-ní-tum), known as aconite, monkshood, wolf's bane, leopard's bane, women's bane, Devil's helmet or blue rocket, is a genus of over 250 species of flowering plants belonging to the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae).

The name comes from ἀκόνιτον meaning without struggle.

Overview

These herbaceous perennial plants are chiefly natives of the mountainous parts of the northern hemisphere, growing in moisture retentive but well draining soils on mountain meadows. Their dark green leaves lack stipules. They are palmate or deeply palmately lobed with 5–7 segments. Each segment again is 3-lobed with coarse sharp teeth. The leaves have a spiral or alternate arrangement. The lower leaves have long petioles.

The tall, erect stem is crowned by racemes of large blue, purple, white, yellow or pink zygomorphic flowers with numerous stamens. They are distinguishable by having one of the five petaloid sepals (the posterior one), called the galea, in the form of a cylindrical helmet; hence the English name monkshood. There are 2–10 petals, in the form of nectaries. The two upper petals are large. They are placed under the hood of the calyx and are supported on long stalks. They have a hollow spur at their apex, containing the nectar. The other petals are small and scale-like or non-forming. The 3–5 carpels are partially fused at the base.

The fruit is a follicle, a follicle being a dry, unilocular, many-seeded fruit formed from one carpel, and dehiscing by the ventral suture in order to release seeds.

Species

Aconitum ajanense Aconitum albo-violaceum Aconitum altaicum Aconitum ambiguum Aconitum angusticassidatum Aconitum anthora (Yellow Monkshood) Aconitum anthoroideum Aconitum album Aconitum axilliflorum Aconitum baburinii Aconitum baicalense Aconitum barbatum Aconitum besserianum Aconitum biflorum Aconitum bucovinense Aconitum burnatii Aconitum carmichaelii' (Carmichael's Monkshood) Aconitum charkeviczii Aconitum chasmanthum Aconitum chinense - Siebold.&Zucc. aka Aconitum carmichaelii var. truppelianum Aconitum cochleare Aconitum columbianum (Western Monkshood) Aconitum confertiflorum Aconitum consanguineum Aconitum coreanum Aconitum crassifolium Aconitum cymbulatum Aconitum czekanovskyi Aconitum decipiens Aconitum degenii (syn. A. variegatum ssp. paniculatum) Aconitum delphinifolium (Larkspurleaf Monkshood) Aconitum desoulavyi Aconitum ferox (Indian Aconite) Aconitum firmum Aconitum fischeri (Fischer Monkshood) Aconitum flerovii Aconitum gigas Aconitum gracile (synonym of A. variegatum ssp. variegatum) Aconitum helenae Aconitum hemsleyanum (Climbing Monkshood) Aconitum hosteanum Aconitum infectum : Arizona Monkshood Aconitum jacquinii (synonym of A. anthora) Aconitum jaluense Aconitum jenisseense Aconitum karafutense Aconitum karakolicum Aconitum kirinense Aconitum krylovii Aconitum kunasilense Aconitum kurilense Aconitum kusnezoffii : Kusnezoff Monkshood Aconitum kuzenevae Aconitum lamarckii Aconitum lasiostomum Aconitum leucostomum Aconitum longiracemosum Aconitum lycoctonum Aconitum macrorhynchum

Aconitum maximum (Kamchatka Aconite) Aconitum miyabei Aconitum moldavicum Aconitum montibaicalense Aconitum nanum Aconitum napellus (Monkshood; type species) Aconitum nasutum Aconitum nemorum Aconitum neosachalinense Aconitum noveboracense (Northern Blue Monkshood) Aconitum ochotense Aconitum orientale Aconitum paniculatum Aconitum paradoxum Aconitum pascoi Aconitum pavlovae Aconitum pilipes Aconitum plicatum Aconitum podolicum Aconitum productum Aconitum pseudokusnezowii Aconitum puchonroenicum Aconitum raddeanum Aconitum ranunculoides Aconitum reclinatum (Trailing White Monkshood) Aconitum rogoviczii Aconitum romanicum Aconitum rotundifolium Aconitum rubicundum Aconitum sachalinense Aconitum sajanense Aconitum saxatile Aconitum sczukinii Aconitum septentrionale Aconitum seravschanicum Aconitum sichotense Aconitum smirnovii Aconitum soongaricum Aconitum stoloniferum Aconitum stubendorffii Aconitum subalpinum Aconitum subglandulosum Aconitum subvillosum Aconitum sukaczevii Aconitum taigicola Aconitum talassicum Aconitum tanguticum Aconitum tauricum Aconitum turczaninowii Aconitum umbrosum Aconitum uncinatum (Southern Blue Monkshood) Aconitum variegatum Aconitum volubile Aconitum vulparia (Wolfsbane) Aconitum woroschilovii

Natural hybrids

• Aconitum × austriacum
• Aconitum × cammarum
• Aconitum × hebegynum
• Aconitum × oenipontanum (A. variegatum ssp. variegatum × ssp. paniculatum)
• Aconitum × pilosiusculum
• Aconitum × platanifolium (A. lycoctonum ssp. neapolitanum × ssp. vulparia)
• Aconitum × zahlbruckneri (A. napellus ssp. vulgare × A. variegatum ssp. variegatum)

Uses

The roots of Aconitum ferox supply the Nepalese poison called bikh, bish, or nabee. It contains large quantities of the alkaloid pseudaconitine, which is a deadly poison. Aconitum palmatum yields another of the bikh poisons. The root of Aconitum luridum, of the Himalaya, is said to be as poisonous as that of A. ferox or A. napellus.

Several species of Aconitum have been used as arrow poisons. The Minaro in Ladakh use A. napellus on their arrows to hunt ibex, while the Ainu in Japan used a species of Aconitum to hunt bear. The Chinese also used Aconitum poisons both for hunting and for warfare.

Many species of Aconitum are cultivated in gardens, having either blue or yellow flowers. Aconitum lycoctonum (Alpine wolfsbane) is a yellow-flowered species common in the Alps of Switzerland. As garden plants the aconites are very ornamental, hardy perennial plants. They thrive in the garden soils, and will grow in the shade of trees. They are easily propagated by divisions of the root or by seeds; care should be taken not to leave pieces of the root where livestock might be poisoned.

The most common plant in this genus, Aconitum napellus (the Common Monkshood) was considered in the past to be of therapeutic and of toxicological importance. Its roots have occasionally been mistaken for horseradish. When touched to one's lip, the juice of the aconite root produces a feeling of numbness and tingling. This plant is used as a food plant by some Lepidoptera species including Dot Moth, The Engrailed, Mouse Moth, Wormwood Pug, and Yellow-tail.

Traditional and Modern Medicinal uses

Aconitum delphinifolium, monkshood from Alaska

Aconite has long been used in the traditional medicine of Asia (India, China). In Ayurveda the herb is used to increase pitta (fire, bile) dosha and to enhance penetration in small doses. However more frequently the herb is detoxified according to the samskaras process and studies, cited in the detoxification section below show that it no longer possesses active toxicity. It is used in traditional Chinese medicine as a treatment for Yang deficiency, "coldness", general debilitation. The herb is considered hot and toxic. It is prepared in extremely small doses. More frequently ginger processed aconite, of lower toxicity, "fu zi" is used. Aconite is one ingredient of Tribhuvankirti, an Ayurvedic preparation for treating a "cold in the head" and fever. Aconite was mixed with patrinia and coix, in a famous treatment for appendicitis described in a formula from the Jingui Yaolue (ca. 220 A.D.) Aconite was also described in Greek and Roman medicine by Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny the Elder, who most likely prescribed the Alpine species Aconitum lycoctonum. The herb was cultivated widely in Europe, probably reaching England before the tenth century, where it was farmed with some difficulty, but came to be widely valued as an anodyne, diuretic, and diaphoretic. In the nineteenth century much aconite was imported from China, Japan, Fiji, and Tonga, with a number of species used to manufacture alkaloids of varying potency but generally similar effect, most often used externally and rarely internally. Effects of different preparations were standardized by testing on guinea pigs.

In Western medicine preparations of aconite were used until just after the middle of the 20th century, but it is no longer employed as it has been replaced by safer and more effective drugs and treatments. The 1911 British Pharmaceutical Codex regarded the medical uses and toxicity of aconite root or leaves to be virtually identical to that of purified aconitine. Aconite first stimulates and later paralyses/numbs the nerves to the sensations of pain, touch, and temperature if applied to the skin or to a mucous membrane; the initial tingling therefore gives place to a long-continued anaesthetic action. Great caution was required, as abraded skin could absorb a dangerous dose of the drug, and merely tasting some of the concentrated preparations available could be fatal. The local anaesthesia of peripheral nerves can be attributed to at least eleven alkaloids with varying potency and stability.

Internal uses were also pursued, to slow the pulse, as a sedative in pericarditis and heart palpitations, and well diluted as a mild diaphoretic, or to reduce feverishness in treatment of colds, pneumonia, quinsy, laryngitis, croup, and asthma due to exposure. Taken internally, aconite acts very notably on the circulation, the respiration, and the nervous system. The pulse is slowed, the number of beats per minute being actually reduced, under considerable doses, to forty, or even thirty, per minute. The blood-pressure synchronously falls, and the heart is arrested in diastole. Immediately before arrest, the heart may beat much faster than normal, though with extreme irregularity, and in animals the auricles may be observed occasionally to miss a beat, as in poisoning by veratrine and colchicum. The action of aconitine on the circulation is due to an initial stimulation of the cardio-inhibitory centre in the medulla oblongata (at the root of the vagus nerves), and later to a directly toxic influence on the nerve-ganglia and muscular fibres of the heart itself. The fall in blood-pressure is not due to any direct influence on the vessels. The respiration becomes slower owing to a paralytic action on the respiratory centre and, in warm-blooded animals, death is due to this action, the respiration being arrested before the action of the heart. Aconite further depresses the activity of all nerve-terminals, the sensory being affected before the motor. In small doses, it therefore tends to relieve pain, if this is present. The activity of the spinal cord is similarly depressed. The pupil is at first contracted, and afterwards dilated. The cerebrum is totally unaffected by aconite, consciousness and the intelligence remaining normal to the last. The antipyretic action which considerable doses of aconite display is not specific but is the result of its influence on the circulation and respiration and of its slight diaphoretic action.

Activated Aconite is used as an herb in Chinese traditional medicine, including in a formula to treat Arthritis. It exhibits especially potent analgesic properties, according to a recent study conducted by researchers with the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Their research reveals that one of the active ingredients in aconite–Bulleyaconitine A, or BLA– strongly reduces sodium channel currents to block overactive pain signals for prolonged periods of time. In China, BLA has been approved for the treatment of chronic pain and rheumatoid arthritis.

Toxicology

Marked symptoms may appear almost immediately, usually not later than one hour, and "with large doses death is almost instantaneous." Death usually occurs within 2 to 6 hours in fatal poisoning (20 to 40 mL of tincture may prove fatal). The initial signs are gastrointestinal including nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. There is followed by a sensation of burning, tingling, and numbness in the mouth and face, and of burning in the abdomen. In severe poisonings pronounced motor weakness occurs and cutaneous sensations of tingling and numbness spread to the limbs. Cardiovascular features include hypotension, bradycardia, sinus tachycardia, and ventricular arrhythmias. Other features may include sweating, dizziness, difficulty in breathing, headache, and confusion. The main causes of death are ventricular arrhythmias and asystole, paralysis of the heart or of the respiratory center. The only post-mortem signs are those of asphyxia.

Treatment of poisoning is mainly supportive. All patients require close monitoring of blood pressure and cardiac rhythm. Gastrointestinal decontamination with activated charcoal can be used if given within 1 hour of ingestion. The major physiological antidote is atropine, which is used to treat bradycardia. Other drugs used for ventricular arrhythmia include lidocaine, amiodarone, bretylium, flecainide, procainamide, and mexiletine. Cardiopulmonary bypass is used if symptoms are refractory to treatment with these drugs. Successful use of charcoal hemoperfusion has been claimed in patients with severe aconite poisoning.

Poisoning may also occur following picking the leaves without wearing gloves; the aconitine toxin is absorbed easily through the skin. In this event, there will be no gastrointestinal effects. Tingling will start at the point of absorption and extend up the arm to the shoulder, after which the heart will start to be affected. The tingling will be followed by unpleasant numbness. Treatment is similar to poisoning caused by oral ingestion.

Aconitine is a potent neurotoxin that blocks tetrodotoxin-sensitive sodium channels. Pretreatment with barakol 10 mg/kg IV reduces the incidence of aconitine-induced ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia, as well as mortality. Five μg/kg IV of tetrodotoxin has the same effect. The protective effects of barakol are probably due to the prevention of intracellular sodium ion accumulation.

Canadian actor Andre Noble died during a camping trip on July 30, 2004 after the accidental consumption of aconite from monkshood.

In January 2009, the British 'Curry Killer' Lakhvir Singh, killed her lover Lakhvinder Cheema with a curry dish laced with Indian Aconite. On 11 February 2010 she was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 23 years for the murder.

Detoxification

Both Chinese medicine and Ayurveda have methods of processing aconite to reduce its toxicity. In Chinese medicine, the traditional pao zhi or preparation of aconite is to steam it with ginger in a fairly elaborate procedure. Due to the variable levels of toxicity in any given sample of the dried herb, there are still issues with using it. Most but not all cases of aconite toxicity in Taiwan were due to the consumption of unprocessed aconite.

According to an article by the Indian scientists Thorat and Dahanukar, "Crude aconite is an extremely lethal substance. However, the science of Ayurveda looks upon aconite as a therapeutic entity. Crude aconite is always processed i.e. it undergoes 'samskaras' before being utilized in the Ayurvedic formulations. This study was undertaken in mice, to ascertain whether 'processed' aconite is less toxic as compared to the crude or unprocessed one. It was seen that crude aconite was significantly toxic to mice (100% mortality at a dose of 2.6 mg/mouse) whereas the fully processed aconite was absolutely non-toxic (no mortality at a dose even 8 times as high as that of crude aconite). Further, all the steps in the processing were essential for complete detoxification"

Cultural depictions

Northern Blue Monkshood (Aconitum noveboracense)

Mythology and Literature

Aconitum features in literature in a number of instances:

• In Greek mythology, Medea attempted to poison Theseus with a cup of wine poisoned with wolfsbane. However Aegeus, his father, interceded when he discerned his identity.

• In the book Airman by Eoin Colfer, Marshall Hugo Bonvilain invites Conor's family to his tower and poisons the wine with wolfsbane which they don't drink.

• Shakespeare, in Henry IV Part II Act 4 Scene 4 refers to aconite, alongside rash gunpowder, working as strongly as the "venom of suggestion" to break up close relationships (cf Iago's role in Othello).

• John Keats, in his Ode on Melancholy, writes:

No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist Wolf's bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kissed By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine…

• Aconitum plays a major role in the story "The Cardinal Napellus" by Gustav Meyrink. It is identified with religious beliefs and connected to the idea of fate.

• Wolfsbane is mentioned in one of the verses of the Wiccan Rede:

Widdershins go when the Moon doth wane, An’ the Werewolf howls by the dread Wolfsbane.

• In the third book of the Brother Cadfael series, Monk's Hood, the herbalist Cadfael uses aconite as an ingredient in a liniment, which is later stolen and used to poison a victim. It is occasionally referenced in other situations as well.

• In Children of the Vampire, the second book in Jeanne Kalogridis vampire series, wolfsbane is named as an ingredient for a very powerful elixir designed to transform one into the form of a wolf (or perhaps other creatures as well) so as to commence training to become a vampire-killer.

• Wolfsbane in the Harry Potter series of Fantasy novels is a toxic plant that can be used as an ingredient in the Wolfsbane Potion, a potion werewolves use to maintain their rationality and conscience when transformed into a wolf. During the events of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the werewolf Remus Lupin forgets to take his dose of Wolfsbane Potion that Severus Snape prepared for him and ends up turning into a werewolf during the full moon. In his first potions class, Harry Potter is mocked by Severus Snape for not knowing that monkshood, wolfsbane, and aconite are the same plant, in an attempt to humiliate him.

• An overdose of aconite was the method in which Rudolph Bloom, father of Leopold Bloom in James Joyce's Ulysses, committed suicide.

Rudolph Bloom died... in consequence of an overdose of monkshood (aconite) self-administered in the form of a neuralgic liniment...

• Aconite poisoning is used as a means of disposal in the Alistair MacLean novel Bear Island.

• In Brian Jacques's Redwall book Outcast of Redwall, Veil the ferret uses wolfsbane to poison one of the residents of Redwall Abbey.

• A controversial herbal remedy for cancer containing aconite was used by the character Kostoglotov in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's novel Cancer Ward.

• The character William Walker, otherwise known as the Wolf Lord, is assassinated, rather appropriately, with aconite in On the Oceans of Eternity, the third book in the Nantucket series by S. M. Stirling.

• In Alex Kava's A Necessary Evil, character Father Michael Keller is poisoned by monkshood in his tea.

• Hinted at in Stephen King´s novel Cycle of the Werewolf (1983), in which Reverend Lowe at some point remembers his lycanthropy might have started after he picked up some strange flowers in a graveyard.

• While legend suggests that Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt was killed by a snake bite, many historians actually believe that she committed suicide by swallowing a lethal drug cocktail made of opium, aconitum (wolfsbane) and hemlock, a highly poisonous plant from the parsley family.

• Wolf's bane is used as an analogy for the power of divine communion in Liber 65 1:13-16, one of Aleister Crowley's Holy Books of Thelema:

Wolf's bane is not so sharp as steel; yet it pierceth the body more subtly. Even as evil kisses corrupt the blood, so do my words devour the spirit of man. I breathe, and there is infinite dis-ease in the spirit. As an acid eats into steel, as a cancer that utterly corrupts the body; so am I unto the spirit of man.

Film and Television

• In the 1931 Universal Pictures film Dracula, wolfsbane is used to keep Dracula out of households.

• The 1941 Universal Pictures genre-classic werewolf horror movie The Wolf Man, starring Lon Chaney, Jr. as Larry Talbot the Wolf Man, and Béla Lugosi, introduced the connection of wolfbane and werewolves to the audience. Throughout the movie, villagers recite a (fictional) gypsy poem,

Even a man who is pure in heart

and says his prayers by night

may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms

and the autumn moon is bright.

The poem was written by Curt Siodmak for the screenplay, and was with variations used in later sequels. Siodmak also introduced a number of other tropes about werewolves that entered modern werewolf folklore.

• In an episode of Home Improvement wolfsbane is given to Tim by Wilson to help him ward off the bad luck he has been experiencing as a presumed result of throwing out a chain letter.

• Aconite is also used as a poison in Midsomer Murders, in the episode "Garden of Death".

• Monkshood is used as a plot device in the Canadian werewolf horror movie Ginger Snaps (2000), as a means of treating lycanthropy.

• In the 1998 play and 2005 film written by Craig Lucas, The Dying Gaul, the main character uses the root of a monkshood plant to attempt to poison his lover's wife.

• In the British TV series Heartbeat, in the first episode of series 8 (1998), the poisonings are eventually found to be due to common monkshood root mistaken for horseradish and made into sauce in the pub.

• In the American television series The Vampire Diaries (2009), Aconitum Vulperia (wolfsbane) is highly toxic to werewolves, similar to the poisonous effects that vervain has on vampires.

• Monkshood was used to poison a teenager in episode 3 ("Sympathy for the Devil") of the TV series Rizzoli & Isles

• In the new MTV show Teen Wolf, Wolfsbane is used to hide the true identity of the human side in a werewolf. Also a rare form of Monkshood called Nordic Blue Monkshood is extremely toxic to werewolves in the sense that exposure to the plant will kill them over time, and force transformations.

• Aconite or wolf's bane was used by the young magician Merlin in an attempt to poison King Arthur whilst he (Merlin) was under enchantment to the will of the witch Morgana, in an episode of the British TV series Merlin (series 4) (2011) called "A Servant of Two Masters".

• Wolf's bane was used in the pilot episode of the TV series Grimm by detective Nick Burkhardt to cover his scent while sneaking up on a 'Blutbad' (German for blood bath), the series' equivalent of a traditional werewolf.

Other media

• It is the namesake for the British alternative metal band Aconite Thrill.

• In the manga and anime Reborn! one of the villains is named Torikabuto, which is Japanese for wolfsbane. As a reference to the many names of the wolfsbane such as monkshood and Devil's helmet, Torikabuto is constantly wearing a black hood over his head and a demonic mask on his face.

Gallery

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  Unidentified Aconitum (possibly Aconitum carmichaelii)

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  Trailing White Monkshood (Aconitum reclinatum)

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  Southern Blue Monkshood (Aconitum uncinatum)

References and external links

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• James Grout: Aconite Poisoning, part of the Encyclopædia Romana
• Photographs of Aconite plants