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تسجيل

Higher plants , The Umbelliferae

المؤلف:  Sue Jickells , Adam Negrusz (Editors)

المصدر:  Clarkes Analytical Forensic Toxicology

الجزء والصفحة:  P121-122

2026-09-28

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Higher plants

The Umbelliferae

The Umbelliferae or Apiaceae family (named after their umbrella-shaped inflorescence) includes a large number of extremely toxic species, together with many species that are consumed by humans, such as carrot, parsley and parsnip. The best-known toxic species are the water hemlock Cicuta virosa and the poison hemlock Conium maculatum. The former contains the polyin cicutoxin as the active principle, whereas the latter contains the piperidine alkaloid coniine (Fig. 1). C. maculatum was the source of the poison used for the execution of Socrates in 399 BC. Cicutoxin affects primarily the CNS causing seizures, whereas coniine affects the neuromuscular junction and may lead to respiratory failure. Both plants have a very high mortality rate after ingestion. In both cases, treatment is symptomatic and does not depend on the result of toxicological analysis. Another class of toxins produced by umbel lifers are the furocoumarins or psoralens, the active principles of the giant hogweed Heracleum mantegazzianum which may cause serious dermal phototoxicity after contact of the skin with   the juice of this plant and exposure to sunlight. The best-known psoralen from hogweed is 8 methoxypsoralen (8-MOP), which is also used in the therapy of psoriasis in combination with UV-A irradiation (De Wolff and Thomas 1986) (Fig. 2). Psoralens can be measured in biological matrices with HPLC.

Figure 1 Coniine.

Figure 2 8-Methoxypsoralen.