Ergot

Do you see the brown things sticking out of the brown seedhead on the right? That is ergot, a fungus that grows on rye grass. The history of ergot in regards to humans is deep and wide and has both positive and negative elements. It has caused death and disease, has been used as an intoxicant, and has provided a source for chemicals to treat migraine. It is both hated and revered.


Illustration from Medical Botany (1836) by John Stephenson and
James Morss Churchhill. Reproduction thanks to Rawpixel.


Ergot, among other things, constricts blood vessels. This means that it can be used to reduce the pain of migraine and reduce hemorrhaging after childbirth. But it also means that it can cause hands and feet to dry up and fall off.  This is called gangrenous egotism.

Ergot grows on rye when the weather is moist. So a staple in the diet becomes poisonous. Hundreds of years before Christ was born, ergotism was mentioned in an Assyrian tablet. Sickness from this fungus was rather too common in the middle ages. Thousands of people died.

It also causes people to feel hot, dance, writhe, and hallucinate. Visions of flying are especially common. Wise pagan women (who later became known as Witches by christians who feared powerful women) used ergot to help women survive childbirth and to help themselves have magical experiences. They smeared magic wands with ergot and applied the fungus to mucus membranes, where it could be absorbed while causing little harm. The wands were disguised as brooms with twigs and straw at one end. That is why Witches always have brooms. Witches are old because it takes time to become wise. They have warts because any imperfection would cause christians to accuse a woman of being a witch. The green skin? That is the result of a portrayal in The Wizard of Oz.

LSD was developed from ergot by Afred Hoffmann at the Swiss company Sandoz. It is not a legal drug. Except Dr Peter Gasser, a Swiss psychiatrist, is using it to help people deal with terminal illness.

Another drug derived from ergot is ergotamine. This is a legal prescription drug used to treat migraine. It has been in used to treat headaches since 1925 and is still available today. Since it is chemically related to neurotransmitters and and causes visions, it is not surprising that it can help with a pain in the head. So maybe it works by working on the blood vessels and on the neurons.

(Rx, sacred plant, poisonous plant, intoxicating plant)

Pacific Yew--Taxus Brevifolia

Pacific Yew is an evergreen tree native to the Pacific Northwest. It is famous as the source of Taxol, one of the most effective cancer treatments found in the last fifty years. Its discovery came after many hiccups and false starts, and my summary will make it all look very simple, which it wasn't.

In the 1950s, the National Cancer Institute was screening every synthetic chemical it could get its hands on for anti-tumor activity. In 1960, it started in on natural products. Since they needed an accurate identification to make sure that it knew where the substances were coming from, they turned to USDA botanists. They tested 30,000 samples per year. In 1962, Arthur Barclay collected samples from the Pacific Yew and submitted them to the Research Triangle Institute in North Carolina. Dr Susan Brand Horwitz delineated its mode of action: it encouraged development to such a degree that cell division became uncoordinated and cells died.

It was selected for clinical trials in 1977. However, the trials were delayed for years due to the difficulty of extracting enough Taxol. It is in very low concentrations in the yew, and the highest concentration is found in the bark. When the bark is harvested, the trees die. Since the bark is only 1/8" thick, to treat one patient for one year, several trees were needed.

Environmentalists complained. They pointed out that the slow-growing yews would be decimated withing a few years in order to treat all the people who would want it. In addition, the yew was the habitat of the Northern Spotted Owl.

Scientists looked for another source of Taxol. They were unable to find one. However, they did find a tree with a precursor to Taxol. Not only was a  taxane present in the European Yew, there were reasonable concentrations in the leaves, so that the tree did not need to be sacrificed to extract the chemical. In addition, yews are grown as hedges in Europe, so that trimmings were regularly available.

Synthesizing Taxol from European Yew worked well for awhile. But now it can be made in the lab from plant cell cultures. The yews of the Pacific Northwest were saved by the ingenuity of scientists working together.

It is used to treat breast, lung and ovarian cancer as well as Karposi's Sarcoma. It is one of the most potent chemotherapy agents ever discovered. Yay, trees!

(Rx)

European Yew--Taxus Baccata

 The European Yew has a deep and wide history all over Europe. The British made bows from the strong flexible wood. The Druids used it to make magic wands. It was commonly used in musical instruments such as lutes and primitive flutes. Since it lived thousands of years and sprouted when drooping branches touched the soil, it was revered as a symbol of reincarnation by the pagans and Resurrection by the Christians.  Since it was used to make weapons, even in ancient times, it was sacred to Hecate, the Greek Goddess of death and the underworld.

It is perhaps the most poisonous plant in Europe and all parts except fleshy covering of the seed are toxic. Yew residue was found on spear points from 50,000 years ago. Ancient Celts use the sap on arrowheads and for ritual suicide. Even Shakespeare mentioned it in a witches brew in Macbeth.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

                                                                Liver of blaspheming Jew,
                                                                Gall of goat, and slips of yew

                                                               

The UC Botanical Garden calls this an English Yew, but it occurs all over Europe, so I like the name European Yew better. At any rate, it is closely related to the Pacific Yew, Taxus brevifolia, which grows in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Canada. Slowly. It grows very slowly. The European Yew also grows slowly, but it is very adaptable (any soil, sun or shade) and has been planted in gardens and parks for hundreds of years. Whereas the Pacific Yew grows sparsely on public lands such as national parks and forests. One use of the European Yew has become particularly important in recent years. It has been planted as a hedge in many areas. This means that it is trimmed regularly, and since the precursor to the cancer drug Taxol occurs in the leaves, it can be used to synthesize the drug without harming the plant. In contrast, the drug only occurs in the bark of the Pacific Yew, and at least three trees had to be destroyed to treat one patient for a year. That didn't sit well with environmentalists.

Yews are sacred, planted in churchyards throughout Britain. However, since the trees are older than the churches, they were probably used by Druids by a sacred grove before christians appropriated the space and crushed their practices. Christians believe that the poisons in the yew protect the dead. So not only are they common in the graveyard, branches are actually buried with the dead.

For the solstice, the Druids decorated evergreens with symbols of hopes for the coming year: fruits for a good harvest, love charms for a new relationship, nuts for fertility and coins for wealth. This was the precursor to the evergreens we put in our homes in December in modern times.

Yews have been the source of one of the most potent cancer treatments found in the last fifty years. Yews can kill you, and they can cure you. We may not worship them or consider them sacred. but many people are thankful for the gifts of the yew.

(sacred plant. Rx)