Witnessed by: Western · Unani
Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum), of the Apiaceae (Umbelliferae) family. Tall biennial umbellifer, 1-2.5 m, hollow ridged stem conspicuously spotted and streaked with purple; native range: Europe, North Africa and temperate Asia; a naturalised weed of waste ground, ditches and hedgerows worldwide. Globally recognized as hemlock, spotted hemlock, spotted cowbane, poison parsley, beaver poison in English, shaukaran (شوكران) in Arabic, and shokaran in Hindi. The part used is leaves gathered when the plant flowers, and the unripe (green) fruit/seed; occasionally the whole herb. Finely cut fern-like foliage of a dull dark green; the bruised leaf and root give off a rank, mousy, disagreeable smell (from coniine) that is the surest field mark of the plant.
In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.
POISON HEMLOCK
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- Poison hemlock
- Scientific name
- Conium maculatum L.
- Family
- Apiaceae (Umbelliferae)
Form
- Part used
- leaves gathered when the plant flowers, and the unripe (green) fruit/seed; occasionally the whole herb
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Western
- acrid, bitter
- Unani
- bitter, acrid
Temperature
- Western
- cold (in the fourth degree, a chilling narcotic)
- Unani
- cold & dry (in the fourth degree, ranked a lethal poison, sam-e-qatil)
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- Western
- nerves · nervous system
- Unani
- nerves · brain
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Western
- sedative, anodyne, antispasmodic, narcotic; in poisonous dose a motor-nerve paralysant acting from the periphery inward
- Unani
- muhallil (resolvent of hot swellings), musakkin (sedative/anodyne), mukhaddir (narcotic and locally numbing), radd-e-warm (antiphlogistic)
Cautions
Contraindications: Absolutely contraindicated for any casual, domestic or self-directed use. Never in pregnancy (it is a known teratogen — causes 'crooked calf' skeletal malformations in livestock and crosses the placenta), lactation, in children, the debilitated, or in respiratory insufficiency. The whole plant is deadly; there is no safe folk dose.
Toxicity: One of the classic lethal plant poisons. The piperidine alkaloid coniine (with gamma-coniceine, N-methylconiine and others) is a nicotinic agent that first stimulates then blocks autonomic ganglia and the neuromuscular junction. Poisoning gives salivation, burning of the mouth, nausea and vomiting, dilated pupils, progressive muscular weakness and an ascending flaccid paralysis that classically climbs from the legs upward while the mind stays clear, ending in death from paralysis of the respiratory muscles and diaphragm (asphyxia). A few grams of leaf, or the green seeds, can kill an adult; children have died from using the hollow stems as whistles or peashooters, and livestock from grazing it. The alkaloid is volatile and absorbed through skin and mucous membranes as well as the gut. There is no specific antidote — management is emptying the stomach, activated charcoal and, above all, assisted ventilation to carry the patient through the respiratory paralysis; recovery is possible if breathing is supported. Do not confuse with the equally deadly but convulsant water hemlock (Cicuta).
Interactions
- Western
- sedatives / CNS depressants: additive central and respiratory depression compounding the narcotic paralysis · anticholinergics: unpredictable interplay with its autonomic (ganglionic-blocking) actions worsening the toxic picture
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