Cicuta virosa (L) Cowbane
NOMENCLATURE
Cicuta : latin for Hemlock (see Conium maculatum).
virosa : poisonous
Cowbane: poisonous to cows.
BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION
TYPE: stout erect aquatic perennial. Hel/Hyd. STATUS: highly poisonous:
AROMA: of parsley. TASTE : sweet, of parsnip.
ROOTS: ovoid, egg shaped, tuberous, septate, hollow, like parsnip.
Has whorls of slender fibourous rootstems. STEMS: ridged, hollow.
HEIGHT: 30-150cm. UMBELS: terminal, compound, lateral; leaf opposed.
7-13cm diam. Flat topped. Rays 10-30’, 1-5cm, subequal, smooth. Pedunclé >
than rays Hermph. Partial umbel many flowered, ;dense.
LEAVES: up to 30cm, deltate, 2-3 pinnate, segments 3-9 cm, linear lancolate, acutely
serrate, unequal at base, midrib scabrid above, smooth beneath. Petioles long, stout,
hollow, sheathing and dilated at :the base. Upper cauline leaves similar but smaller.
Cotyledons gradually tapered at base, no petiole.
BRACTS: 0. Bracteoles many. Strap shaped, longer than the pedicels.
FLOWERS: white. Calyx teeth ovate. Inflexed points on petals.
Styles f arm stylopodium. Fl .7-8.
FRUIT: 2mm, subglobose, or broadly ovoid, subterete; smooth. Commisure wide.
Carpels with 5 equal broad flattened edges. Carpophore present. Vittae, slender, solitary
in the furrows. Pedicels 6mm, slender. Styles 2-3 x as long as stylopodium, curved.
Stigma a small knob. Has spongy cavities to keep seeds afloat. 2n=22.
HABITAT : shallow water, ditches, marshes. ponds, fens, often with Hemlock.
DISTRIBUTION: native. Scattered through Britain. Local, fens, mainly in East Anglia,
Shropshire, Cheshire, S.E. Scotland, N.E. & N.C. Ireland. Europe N. of 45. Temperate Asia.
Siberia to Sakhalin & Japan.
MEDICINAL USES
ACTIVE INGREDIENTS: Resinous Cicutoxin, an amorphous substance of acid
reaction, slight odour, disaggreable taste 3-5%. Cucatine also.
APPLICATION: homoeopathy only; for epilepsy, meningitis, ailments of brain.
POISONING PRINCIPLES
SYMPTOMS: produces tetonic convulsions which kills cattle frequently. Nausea,
widely dilated pupils, vomiting, delirium, violent convulsions & death from asphyxia.
Looses properties on drying.
POST MORTEM: will not reveal anything.
TREATMENT: keep patient warm; avoid :excitment. Stomach lavage,
inject soluable barbituates or ant iconvulsants.
‘British Poisons Unit’, April 1857: two farmers Sons found paralysed & speechless
near a pond, close to the field they had beenworking in. They expired shortly after.
They hadmistaken the roots of Cowbane for an edible species.
http://www.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de/~stueber/thome/band3/tafel_056_small.jpg