Full Answer
What is ergot poisoning?
Ergot is a type of fungus that can grow on grains such as rye and wheat. If a person eats the contaminated grains, it can result in ergot poisoning. The symptoms vary but can include dizziness, convulsions, psychosis, or gangrene.
Is ergotism toxic to animals?
Also, ergotism is known to be toxic to animals, so it is likely that some of the animals would have contracted ergot poisoning as well, but nothing is mentioned of animals suffering from the disease.
What chemicals are considered ergot?
The chemicals that are considered ergots are ergometrine, ergotamine, and ergosine. They can naturally occur, potentially leading to ergot poisoning, or they can be manufactured. Ergot alkaloids are produced by Claviceps purpurea, a fungus that can grow on certain plants.
Was there an ergot poisoning epidemic in Salem?
Spanos and Gottlieb also state that ergot poisoning has additional symptoms not associated with the events in Salem and that the proportion of children afflicted was less than in a typical ergotism epidemic. Anthropologist H.
What is ergot poisoning Salem witch trials?
In 1976 Linnda Caporael offered the first evidence that the Salem witch trials followed an outbreak of rye ergot. Ergot is a fungus blight that forms hallucinogenic drugs in bread. Its victims can appear bewitched when they're actually stoned. Ergot thrives in a cold winter followed by a wet spring.
What disease did witches have?
M. M. Drymon has proposed that Lyme disease was responsible for witches and witch affliction, finding that many of the afflicted in Salem and elsewhere lived in areas that were tick-risky, had a variety of red marks and rashes that looked like bite marks on their skin, and had neurological and arthritic symptoms.
What is ergot poisoning?
Ergot is a type of fungus that can grow on grains such as rye and wheat. If a person eats the contaminated grains, it can result in ergot poisoning. The symptoms vary but can include dizziness, convulsions, psychosis, or gangrene. In the past, midwives and doctors used ergot to induce childbirth.
What illness was the cause of the Salem witch trials?
Dr Michael Zandi (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology) suggests that anti-NMDAR encephalitis, an auto-immune disease, may have caused the symptoms and behaviours which led to twenty women being hanged in the 1692 Salem witches trial.
What happens if you eat ergot fungus?
When taken by mouth: Ergot is UNSAFE when taken by mouth. There is a high risk of poisoning, and it can be fatal. Early symptoms of poisoning include nausea, vomiting, muscle pain and weakness, numbness, itching, and rapid or slow heartbeat.
How is Ergot poisoning treated?
How Can Ergot Poisoning Be Treated? There is no antidote, so treatment involves removing the animals from the source of the ergot and alleviating the symptoms. If found early enough and before severe clinical signs develop, animals can recover, but once gangrene has started, there is little treatment.
Does ergot poisoning still exist?
In less wealthy countries, ergotism still occurs; an outbreak in Ethiopia occurred in mid-2001 from contaminated barley. Whenever there is a combination of moist weather, cool temperatures, delayed harvest in lowland crops and rye consumption, an outbreak is possible.
Do people still get ergot poisoning?
As a result, individual cases are now sporadic and outbreaks since the late 1800s have been rare and localized. But the unusual pharmacologic qualities of C. purpurea ergots that cause ergotism, became harvested themselves, initially by midwives, for centuries of medicinal use.
How common is ergot poisoning?
The work of St. Anthony is commemorated in the 16th-century Isenheim altarpiece by Matthius Grunewald (Figure 1). Modern day ergotism is quite rare. Only 0.001% to 0.002% of current ergotamine users develop ergotism.
What caused the hysteria in Salem?
The salem witch trials hysteria of 1692 was caused by the Puritans strict religious standards and intolerance of anything not accepted with their scripture. The largest account of witch trials as well as deaths by witch trials occurred in Salem, a village heavily populated with the Puritans.
What were the symptoms of being a witch in Salem?
The afflicted were those believed to be harmed by the effects of witchcraft. Beginning in January of 1692, these individuals showed strange, alarming symptoms. Making strange, foreign sounds, huddling under furniture, and clutching their heads, these symptoms were astounding to their parents and neighbors.
What illness did Betty Parris have?
Soon enough, he called in physician William Griggs and minister John Hale for a diagnosis. Both agreed that Elizabeth (Betty) and Abigail were suffering from witchcraft. There are more logical reasons the girls fell under these illnesses.
Who was the first witch in history?
Bridget Bishop ( c. 1632 – 10 June 1692) was the first person executed for witchcraft during the Salem witch trials in 1692....Bridget BishopBishop, as depicted in a lithographBornBridget Magnus c. 1632 Norwich, EnglandDied10 June 1692 (aged c. 60) Salem, Colony of MassachusettsCause of deathExecution by hanging5 more rows
What caused hysteria in Salem?
During Tituba's examination, she made a shocking confession that she had been approached by Satan, along with Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn, and they had all agreed to do his bidding as witches. Tituba's confession was the trigger that sparked the mass hysteria and the hunt for more witches in Salem.
Why were witches killed?
The causes of witch-hunts include poverty, epidemics, social crises and lack of education. The leader of the witch-hunt, often a prominent figure in the community or a "witch doctor", may also gain economic benefit by charging for an exorcism or by selling body parts of the murdered.
What illness did Betty Parris have?
Soon enough, he called in physician William Griggs and minister John Hale for a diagnosis. Both agreed that Elizabeth (Betty) and Abigail were suffering from witchcraft. There are more logical reasons the girls fell under these illnesses.
What are the symptoms of ergot poisoning?
The symptoms of ergot poisoning include: crawling sensations in the skin, tingling in the fingers, vertigo, tinnitus aurium, headaches, disturbances in sensation, hallucination, painful muscular contractions leading to epileptic convulsions, vomiting, ...
When was Ergot first used?
The first medical scientific report was not made until a few years before Salem. The in no reference to ergot in the U.S. before 1807. Dr. John Stearns suggested to a colleague that he should use a powdered form of ergot as a therapeutic agent in childbirth. There are two types of ergotism: gangrenous and convulsive.
What does Caporael say about ergotism?
Caporael says, "It is a matter of the extent of infection and the period of time over which the ergot is consumed rather than the mere existence of ergot that determines the potential for ergotism" (Caporael, 23). The location of the contaminated rye is appears to be a major factor.
What is ergotism fungus?
All of these symptoms appear to fit the description of convulsive ergotism. Ergot (Claviceps purpura) is a fungus that grows on a variety of grains, especially rye. It grows in a slightly curved, fusiform shape with sclerotia replacing individual grains on the host plant.
What are the two types of ergotism?
There are two types of ergotism: gangrenous and convulsive. We have already looked at the symptoms for convulsive ergotism, and the syptoms of gangrenous ergotism are as the name implies. Extremities show signs of dry gangrene, then follows the loss of those extremities.
What is the name of the alkaloid found in morning glory seeds?
The sclerotia contains a large number of potent pharmacological agents, known as ergot alkaloids. This alkaloid (with ten percent of the activity of D-LSD) is also found in morning glory seeds. It was used as a ritual hallucinogenic drug by the Aztecs (Caporael, 23). Ergot favors warm, damp, rainy springs and summers.
What area of Salem was the largest landholding for Ergot?
Swampy area are great for ergot to develop. Thomas Putnam inherited one of the largest landholding in Salem, and it happened to include swampy meadows. This may have been the area of contamination. Three of the afflicted girls lived in the Putnam residence.
Why is Ergot not used in pregnancy?
Most often, ergot was used to speed the process of parturition or delivery, and was not used for the purpose of halting postpartum bleeding, which is a concern of childbirth. However, until anesthesia became available, there was no antidote or way of controlling the effects of ergot.
What is the ergot sclerotium?
The ergot sclerotium contains high concentrations (up to 2% of dry mass ) of the alkaloid ergotamine, a complex molecule consisting of a tripeptide-derived cyclol-lactam ring connected via amide linkage to a lysergic acid (ergoline) moiety, and other alkaloids of the ergoline group that are biosynthesized by the fungus. Ergot alkaloids have a wide range of biological activities including effects on circulation and neurotransmission.
What happens when sclerotium drops to the ground?
When a mature sclerotium drops to the ground, the fungus remains dormant until proper conditions (such as the onset of spring or a rain period) trigger its fruiting phase. It germinates, forming one or several fruiting bodies with heads and stipes, variously coloured (resembling a tiny mushroom ). In the head, threadlike sexual spores form, which are ejected simultaneously when suitable grass hosts are flowering. Ergot infection causes a reduction in the yield and quality of grain and hay, and if livestock eat infected grain or hay it may cause a disease called ergotism .
What is the life cycle of an ergot kernel?
Life cycle. An ergot kernel, called a sclerotium, develops when a spore of fungal species of the genus Claviceps infects a floret of flowering grass or cereal. The infection process mimics a pollen grain growing into an ovary during fertilization. Infection requires that the fungal spore have access to the stigma; consequently, ...
What is the genus of ergot fungi?
For the part of a horse's hoof, see Ergot (horse anatomy). Ergot (pron. / ˈɜːrɡət / UR-gət) or ergot fungi refers to a group of fungi of the genus Claviceps. The most prominent member of this group is Claviceps purpurea ("rye ergot fungus").
What is the disease that causes grain to be ejected?
Ergot infection causes a reduction in the yield and quality of grain and hay, and if livestock eat infected grain or hay it may cause a disease called ergotism .
What is the first stage of ergot infection?
The first stage of ergot infection manifests itself as a white soft tissue (known as sphacelia) producing sugary honeydew, which often drops out of the infected grass florets. This honeydew contains millions of asexual spores ( conidia ), which insects disperse to other florets.
What causes ergot in wheat?
Ergot is caused by the fungus Claviceps purpurea, which affects rye, wheat and other cereal grasses. When first infected, the flowering head of a grain will spew out sweet, yellow-colored mucus, called "honey dew," which contains fungal spores that can spread the disease. Eventually, the fungus invades the developing kernels of grain, taking them over with a network of filaments that turn the grains into purplish-black sclerotia. Sclerotia can be mistaken for large, discolored grains of rye. Within them are potent chemicals, ergot alkaloids, including lysergic acid (from which LSD is made) and ergotamine (now used to treat migraine headaches). The alkaloids affect the central nervous system and cause the contraction of smooth muscle — the muscles that make up the walls of veins and arteries, as well as the internal organs.
Who were the first people to be arrested for witchcraft?
And then the finger pointing began. The first to be accused were Tituba, Parris's Caribbean-born slave, along with Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn, two elderly women considered of ill repute. All three were arrested on February 29. Ultimately, more than 150 "witches" were taken into custody; by late September 1692, 20 men and women had been put to death, and five more accused had died in jail. None of the executed confessed to witchcraft. Such a confession would have surely spared their lives, but, they believed, condemned their souls.
Can eating ergot cause muscle spasms?
Toxicologists now know that eating ergot-contaminated food can lead to a convulsive disorder characterized by violent muscle spasms, vomiting, delusions, hallucinations, crawling sensations on the skin, and a host of other symptoms
Did Ergot poisoning influence the French Revolution?
"Some of these ideas are skating on thin ice," she says, such as the theory that ergot poisoning may have influenced the outcome of the French Revolution. "I do think there is a lot of work that can be done on the historical incidence of ergot, but not all of these cases will end up being ergot poisoning. Many of them could be attributed to the same kind of mass hysteria hypothesis that described Salem at one time."
When did the Ergot epidemic occur?
Notable epidemics of ergotism occurred into the 19th century. Fewer outbreaks have occurred since then owing to rye being carefully monitored in developed countries. However a severe outbreak of something akin to ergot poisoning occurred in the French village of Pont-Saint-Esprit in 1951, resulting in five deaths. The outbreak and the diagnostic confusion surrounding it are vividly described in John Grant Fuller 's book The Day of St Anthony's Fire.
What causes ergotism in the rye?
Historically, eating grain products, particularly rye, contaminated with the fungus Claviceps purpurea was the cause of ergotism.
What was the name of the gangrenous poisoning?
In the Middle Ages the gangrenous poisoning was known as "holy fire" or "Saint Anthony's fire", named after monks of the Order of St. Anthony who were particularly successful at treating this ailment. According to Snorri Sturluson, in his Heimskringla, King Magnus II of Norway, son of King Harald Sigurtharson, who was the half-brother of Saint King Olaf Haraldsson, died from ergotism shortly after the Battle of Hastings. The 12th-century chronicler Geoffroy du Breuil of Vigeois recorded the mysterious outbreaks in the Limousin region of France, where the gangrenous form of ergotism was associated with the local Saint Martial. Likewise, an outbreak in Paris c. 1129 was reported to be cured by the relics of Saint Genevieve, a miracle commemorated in the 26 November "Feast of the Burning Ones".
How to get rid of ergots in soil?
Prevention. Removal of ergot bodies is done by placing the yield in a brine solution; the ergot bodies float while the healthy grains sink. Infested fields must be deep-plowed; ergot cannot germinate if buried more than one inch in soil and therefore will not release its spores into the air.
When did Fuchs separate references to ergotism from erysipelas and other?
When Fuchs separated references to ergotism from erysipelas and other afflictions in 1834 he found the earliest reference to ergotism in the Annales Xantenses for the year 857: "a great plague of swollen blisters consumed the people by a loathsome rot, so that their limbs were loosened and fell off before death.".
Is ergot a red powder?
When milled, the ergot is reduced to a red powder, obvious in lighter grasses but easy to miss in dark rye flour. In less wealthy countries, ergotism still occurs; an outbreak in Ethiopia occurred in mid-2001 from contaminated barley. Whenever there is a combination of moist weather, cool temperatures, delayed harvest in lowland crops and rye consumption, an outbreak is possible.
Can ergotism explain bewitchment?
The hypothesis that ergotism could explain cases of bewitchment has been subject to debate and has been criticized by several scholars. Within a year of Caporael's article, historians Spanos and Gottlieb argued against the idea in the same journal. In Spanos and Gottlieb's rebuttal to Caporael's article, they concluded that there are several flaws in the explanation. For example, they argued that, if the food supply were contaminated, the symptoms would have occurred by household, not individual. However, historian Leon Harrier said that even if supplies were properly cooked, residents suffering stomach ulcers had a risk of absorbing the toxin through the stomach lining, offering a direct route to the bloodstream. Being chemically similar to lysergic acid diethylamide ( LSD ), ergot would not survive in the acidic environment of a typical human's stomach, especially in properly cooked food. But if some but not all residents were malnourished and suffering bleeding stomach ulcers, only they could be affected by ingesting contaminated grains, leaving the majority unaffected, explaining why ergotism was not previously recognized. Harrier argued that the numbers could have been larger, possibly including the entire town, but due to the trials on bewitchment and heresy, and the fear of being accused and subsequently executed, few could come forward while suffering legitimate medical conditions.
Overview
Ergot or ergot fungi refers to a group of fungi of the genus Claviceps.
The most prominent member of this group is Claviceps purpurea ("rye ergot fungus"). This fungus grows on rye and related plants, and produces alkaloids that can cause ergotism in humans and other mammals who consume grains contaminated with its fruiting structure (called ergot sclerotium).
Life cycle
An ergot kernel, called a sclerotium, develops when a spore of fungal species of the genus Claviceps infects a floret of flowering grass or cereal. The infection process mimics a pollen grain growing into an ovary during fertilization. Infection requires that the fungal spore have access to the stigma; consequently, plants infected by Claviceps are mainly outcrossing species with open flowers, such as rye (Secale cereale) and ryegrasses (genus Lolium). The proliferating fungal myc…
Evolution
The evolution of plant parasitism in the Clavicipitaceae dates back at least 100 million years, to the early-mid Cretaceous. An amber fossil discovered in 2014 preserves a grass spikelet and an ergot-like parasitic fungus. The fossil shows that the original hosts of the Clavicipitaceae could have been grasses. The discovery also establishes a minimum time for the conceivable presence of psychotropic compounds in fungi. Several evolutionary processes have acted to diversify the arr…
Effects on humans, other mammals and LSD
The ergot sclerotium contains high concentrations (up to 2% of dry mass) of the alkaloid ergotamine, a complex molecule consisting of a tripeptide-derived cyclol-lactam ring connected via amide linkage to a lysergic acid (ergoline) moiety, and other alkaloids of the ergoline group that are biosynthesized by the fungus. Ergot alkaloids have a wide range of biological activities including effects on cir…
History
Ergotism is the earliest recorded example of mycotoxicosis, or poisoning caused by toxic molds. Early references to ergotism date back as far as 600 BC, an Assyrian tablet referred to it as a 'noxious pustule in the ear of grain'. In 350 BC, the Parsees described 'noxious grasses that cause pregnant women to drop the womb and die in childbed'. In ancient Syria, ergot was called 'Daughter of Blood'. Radulf …
Claviceps purpurea
Mankind has known about Claviceps purpurea for a long time, and its appearance has been linked to extremely cold winters that were followed by rainy summers.
The sclerotial stage of C. purpurea conspicuous on the heads of ryes and other such grains is known as ergot. Favorable temperatures for growth are in the range of 18–30 °C. Temperatures above 37 °C cause rapid germination of conidia. Sunlight has a chromogenic effect on the myceli…
Claviceps africana
Claviceps africana infects sorghum. In sorghum and pearl millet, ergot became a problem when growers adopted hybrid technology, which increased host susceptibility. It only infects unfertilized ovaries, so self-pollination and fertilization can decrease the presence of the disease, but male-sterile lines are extremely vulnerable to infection. Symptoms of infection by C. africana include the secretion of honeydew (a fluid with high concentrates of sugar and conidia), which attracts in…
Claviceps paspali
Claviceps paspali infects wild grasses and could be found on the common grass Paspalum. Like the C. africana, C. paspali also secretes honeydew which is consumed by bees. The bees then create a honey called fic'e (Paraguayan Makai Indian language), which is infused with secretions from the plants and has a pungent aroma. If consumed in high amounts, the honey can cause drunkenness, dizziness and even death.