As mentioned
in the last entry, despite its promising start, the AMNH exhibit largely
focuses on the one-sided meaning of poison as harmful agents, without showing
much of its beneficial functions. In the only non-West demonstration, it
presents a servant offering an elixir to the first emperor in China, Qinshi
Huangdi, along with some brief descriptions of elixir poisoning in China. Again,
poison is something to be avoided. That is the general impression of poison in
our society, which the exhibit captures and reinforces.
Along this
line of thought, the show gives some examples of herbal poisons. One
is called Monkshood, a plant with blue or purple flowers that look like the
hood on a robe worn by a monk.
It grows around the world in northern temperate
climate. Its root contains powerful neurotoxins and cardiotoxins that can kill
a person by heart attack. Any medicinal uses? Yes, yet the exhibit says that the
plant is “sometimes used in extract form as an anti-inflammatory agent, but
this is extremely risky because of the plant’s toxicity.” So better to be
careful with it. In history, it is also the case in the West. As early as the
first century CE, the plant was recognized as a powerful poison. In his
monumental work De Materia Medica, the
Roman pharmacist Dioschorides called the plant wolfsbane, and, as the name
implies, only used it to kill animals. However, if I tell you the Chinese name
of this plant, you might be surprised: fuzi
(附子). It is one of the most commonly used
drugs in Chinese medicine since antiquity. Of course it needs to be carefully
processed before application. But why did the West ignore the medicinal value
of the plant? This is the same type of plants in the Aconitum genus. In Europe it is condemned as the “queen of poisons,”
yet in China it is hailed as the “chief of all medicines.”(百藥之長) Interesting, isn’t it?
Let’s flip the
coin. There is another poisonous plant in the show called Belladonna, which
grows in Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia (because of this geographical
restriction, the plant did not enter Chinese pharmacy).
The toxic chemical
called atropine in the plant can induce hallucination and coma. Atropine
derived from the name of a Greek goddess Atropos, who represents fate and
destiny (another entry is on its way for this fascinating, if not somewhat
melancholic, topic).
Atropos has two sisters: Clotho, who spins the thread of
life, and Lachesis, who measures the length of the thread. But Atropos’s role
is most decisive and cruel: she cuts the thread. And that is the conceived
power of the plant. Belladonna belongs to a large group of plants of Solanaceae family called nightshade. If
these names sound too technical for you, the following foods in the group may
not: tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, and hot peppers. Of course they don’t
contain the same kind or level of toxins as Belladonna, but if one eats them
improperly, for example, eating potatoes with sprouts that contain a high
concentration of alkaloids, the omnipresent Atropos may start her job…
Finally, let’s
take a look at a famous poison called hemlock. This parsley-looking plant (picture on the left),
grown in Europe, northern Africa, and Asia, can cause paralysis and death. It
is famous because Socrates allegedly drank the lethal poison for his death
sentence. I couldn’t find this plant in Chinese pharmacy, but people often
confuse it with a herb called gouwen
(鉤吻) in China (picture on the right) . They look somewhat similar
– yellow and clustered flowers, slim stems, but belong to utterly different
families (see the edges of their leaves are different). Interesting, gouwen is the plant that, according to the legend, the
Divine Farmer (神農), the alleged
founder of Chinese pharmacology, tried and died from. It later acquired a
colorful name in China – duanchangcao
(斷腸草), which we often see in kong-fu novels.
Unlike the fate of fuzi, gouwen was mainly imaged and employed as
a poison in Chinese history.
Well, this
entry might feel a bit technical. If nothing else, here is the message - don't be afraid of fuzi, and be careful
when you next time eat potatoes.
