What probably caused someone to eat a thimble? I ponder this when I find myself in pink seas of flowers on a holiday walk through the Taunus. In the clearings left by the trees that fell victim to the drought, a new resident is spreading, the foxglove. Wherever you look the plants sprout, big as an adult. The pink, bell-shaped flowers are truly a feast for the eyes. Once people wanted to find out whether the thimble also did something similar for the palate and then involuntarily demonstrated the extreme effect of Digitalis purpurea.
The pretty foxglove is actually quite poisonous – after eating just three leaves you get nauseous, followed by dizziness and vomiting, your heart races, you hallucinate and eventually you die. Foxgloves have been used medicinally for centuries. Its active ingredients, known as cardiac glycosides, will be standard medicine for heart failure in 2022. An ailment where the heart can really use the extra drive. Nevertheless, the foxglove was voted poisonous plant of the year in 2007 by the special botanical garden in Wandsbek.
The unknown pioneers of poison research
An honor bestowed on the potato in 2022. Their green parts and germs contain solanine, which can lead to nausea, breathing disorders and paralysis. That convinced 27 percent of the 1751 votes cast. But although the election result has been known for more than half a year, many people continue to eat potatoes. Do you love taking risks or do you want to do the incredible thing of eating potatoes before they sprout?
Incidentally, sometimes animals also involuntarily become pioneers of poison research, so basically a herd of cows in Wisconsin discovered the vitamin K antagonists, which today are among the most prescribed blood thinners. In the 1930s, the cows had eaten moldy clover and then bled to death. It was so unusual that the farmer gave blood samples to biochemist Karl Paul Link at the University of Wisconsin. His team identified the toxin dicumarol, which fungi produce from the coumarin glycosides found in clover. It prevents blood clotting. Once a rat poison, it now protects people from strokes.
So the lesson is: there are no clear boundaries in nature, the transition between poison and remedy is fluid. And unknown blossoms or moldy clover don’t belong on the plate.