''Gelsemium'' is an Asian and North American

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants t ...

s belonging to family Gelsemiaceae. The genus contains three species of shrubs to straggling or twining climbers. Two species are native to North America, and one to China and Southeast Asia. includes description, drawings, distribution map, etc.

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...

first classified ''G. sempervirens'' as ''

Bignonia ''Bignonia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae. Its genus and family were named after Jean-Paul Bignon by his protégé Joseph Pitton de Tournefort in 1694, and the genus was established as part of modern botanical nomen ...

sempervirens'' in 1753;

Antoine Laurent de Jussieu Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (; 12 April 1748 – 17 September 1836) was a French botanist, notable as the first to publish a natural classification of flowering plants; much of his system remains in use today. His classification was based on an ...

created a new genus for this species in 1789. ''Gelsemium'' is a Latinized form of the Italian word for

jasmine Jasmine ( taxonomic name: ''Jasminum''; , ) is a genus of shrubs and vines in the olive family (Oleaceae). It contains around 200 species native to tropical and warm temperate regions of Eurasia, Africa, and Oceania. Jasmines are widely culti ...

, ''gelsomino''. ''G. elegans'' has the

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

''"heartbreak grass"''.

Properties

All three species of this genus are poisonous.

Active components

The active components of gelsemium are the

alkaloids Alkaloids are a class of basic, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Some synthetic compounds of similar ...

, which are present in a concentration of about 0.5%. These consist primarily of gelsemine (a highly toxic compound related to

strychnine Strychnine (, , US chiefly ) is a highly toxic, colorless, bitter, crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine, when inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through the e ...

), with lesser amounts of related compounds (gelsemicine, gelsedine, etc). Other compounds found in the plant include

scopoletin Scopoletin is a coumarin. It found in the root of plants in the genus ''Scopolia'' such as ''Scopolia carniolica'' and ''Scopolia japonica'', in chicory, in ''Artemisia scoparia'', in the roots and leaves of stinging nettle ('' Urtica dioica''), i ...

(also called gelsemic acid), a small amount of volatile oil, fatty acid and tannins. ''Gelsemium'' has been shown to contain methoxyindoles.

Medicinal uses

As late as 1906, a drug called Gelsemium, made from the

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow ...

and rootlets of ''Gelsemium sempervirens'', was used in the treatment of facial and other

neuralgia Neuralgia (Greek ''neuron'', "nerve" + ''algos'', "pain") is pain in the distribution of one or more nerves, as in intercostal neuralgia, trigeminal neuralgia, and glossopharyngeal neuralgia. Classification Under the general heading of neural ...

s. It also proved valuable in some cases of

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. ...

l fever, and was occasionally used as a cardiac depressant and in spasmodic affections, but was inferior for this purpose to other remedies.

Species

Alleged poisoning victims

* On 23 December 2011, Long Liyuan, a Chinese billionaire, died after eating cat stew that was allegedly poisoned with ''Gelsemium elegans''. * On 10 November 2012,

Alexander Perepilichny Alexander Yurevich Perepilichny (russian: Алекса́ндр Ю́рьевич Перепеличный; 15 July 1968 – 10 November 2012) was a Russian businessman and whistleblower who died, while jogging near London in 2012, after leaving Ru ...

died outside his UK home, after warning of Kremlin death threats he received related to the Magnitsky affair. A lawyer for the deceased's life insurance company told a pre-inquest hearing that toxicology reports had identified traces of ''Gelsemium'' in his body. However, this was later denied by an expert at the

Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,100 ...

, the Police and coroner concluded that he died of natural causes.

Symptoms of poisoning

The poison affects the vision and respiration. Symptoms can appear almost immediately.

Arthur Conan Doyle's experiment

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for '' A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

, writer of the

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

stories, once administered himself a small amount of gelsemium and kept increasing the amount every day until he could no longer stand the ill effects. In a letter written by him to the ''

British Medical Journal ''The BMJ'' is a weekly peer-reviewed medical trade journal, published by the trade union the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world's oldest general medical journals. Origi ...

'' on 20 September 1879, he described that he had persistent diarrhea, severe frontal headache, and great depression, and therefore stopped his

self-experimentation Self-experimentation refers to the special case of single-subject research in which the experimenter conducts the experiment on themselves. Usually this means that a single person is the designer, operator, subject, analyst, and user or reporte ...

at 200 minims.

A rare case of ''Gelsemium'' addiction

In his classic early 20th century work on psychotropic drugs ''Phantastica'', German pharmacologist

Louis Lewin Louis Lewin (9 November 1850 - 1 December 1929) was a German pharmacologist. In 1887 he received his first sample of the Peyote cactus from Dallas, Texas-based physician John Raleigh Briggs (1851-1907), and later published the first methodical ...

recounts the curious and tragic case - seemingly unique in the literature - of an individual who became addicted (in a manner far more often associated with

opiate An opiate, in classical pharmacology, is a substance derived from opium. In more modern usage, the term ''opioid'' is used to designate all substances, both natural and synthetic, that bind to opioid receptors in the brain (including antagonis ...

s) to a ''Gelsemium'' preparation:

during a severe attack of
rheumatism Rheumatism or rheumatic disorders are conditions causing chronic, often intermittent pain affecting the joints or connective tissue. Rheumatism does not designate any specific disorder, but covers at least 200 different conditions, including art ...
a man took a large quantity of an alcoholic tincture of ''Gelsemium sempervirens'' a plant which is liable to act on the brain and the
medulla oblongata The medulla oblongata or simply medulla is a long stem-like structure which makes up the lower part of the brainstem. It is anterior and partially inferior to the cerebellum. It is a cone-shaped neuronal mass responsible for autonomic (involun ...
. Noticing an appreciable result he continued to take it, and finally became a slave to the drug. He gradually augmented the quantity, and reached 30 gr. of the tincture in one dose. Slowly he became
pale Pale may refer to: Jurisdictions * Medieval areas of English conquest: ** Pale of Calais, in France (1360–1558) ** The Pale, or the English Pale, in Ireland *Pale of Settlement, area of permitted Jewish settlement, western Russian Empire (179 ...
, agitated, and discontented. He
wasted Wasted may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature *'' Wasted: Tales of a GenX Drunk'', a 1997 memoir by Mark Judge *'' Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia'', a 1998 autobiography by Marya Hornbacher *'' Wasted: A Childhood Sto ...
away.
Hallucination A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the qualities of a real perception. Hallucinations are vivid, substantial, and are perceived to be located in external objective space. Hallucination is a combinatio ...
set in, and his state grew worse until disorders of the intelligence appeared. As he continued to increase the doses he fell into idiocy and died in a state of
mental confusion In medicine, confusion is the quality or state of being bewildered or unclear. The term "acute mental confusion"
.Lewin L. ''Phantastica. Die betäubenden und erregenden Genussmittel. Für Ärzte und Nichtärzte'' (trans. ''Phantastica: Narcotic and Stimulating Drugs. For Doctors and Non-doctors'') Berlin: Verlag von Georg Stilke, 1924.