Veratrum

Veratrum is a genus of coarse highly poisonous perennial herbs of the Melanthiaceae family. In English they are usually known as the False hellebores. Members of Veratrum are known both in western herbalism and traditional Chinese medicine as toxic herbs to be used with great caution. It is one of the medicinals cited in Chinese herbal texts as incompatible with many other common herbs because of its potentiating effects.

Veratrum species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Setaceous Hebrew Character.

Birth defects in livestock grazing on Veratrum californicum (native to the western United States) led to the study of cyclopamine and jervine which are important in animal developmental biology including cancer treatment.


Uses
Veratrum species contain highly toxic steroidal alkaloids that can cause rapid cardiac failure and death if ingested or introduced into the bloodstream. Native Americans used the juice pressed from the roots of this plant to poison arrows before combat. The dried powdered root of this plant was also used as an insecticide.

Veratrum species are an important source of life-saving medications used in modern medical preparations which lower blood pressure, slow the heartbeat, and are used for cancer treatment. Cyclopamine derived from Veratrum species is a potent teratogen that is an effective treatment for several deadly and malignant cancers, including basal cell carcinoma, medulloblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, glioblastoma, and multiple myeloma.

During the winter months, when the plant enters its dormant stage, it degrades and metabolizes most of its toxic alkaloids. Herbalists and Native Americans who used this plant for medicinal purposes harvested the roots during the winter months when the levels of toxic constituents were at their lowest. Veratrum species produce highly toxic steroidal alkaloids only when the plants are in active growth. The root and the seeds are the most poisonous parts of the plant.


Selected species
Veratrum album, commonly known as the False Helleborine (but also known as White Hellebore, European White Hellebore, White Veratrum) is a medicinal plant[2][3] of the Liliaceae (lily family) which is native to Europe.
The plant is a perennial herb, with a stout vertical rhizome covered with remnants of old leaf sheaths. The stems are stout, simple, 50-175cm tall. They have been mistaken for yellow gentian, Gentiana lutea, which is used in beverages, resulting in poisoning.
The most efficient drug based on white hellebore and a sesamoide (probably the reseda alba) was in antiquity elaborated by the physicians of Antikyra, a city of Phokis in Greece.

Veratrum californicum (Corn lily) is a poisonous plant native to western North America. It is a source of cyclopamine, a teratogen which can cause birth defects such as holoprosencephaly and cyclopia in animals that graze upon it. The latter occurs because the plant contains two teratogens, jervine and cyclopamine that inhibit the hedgehog signaling pathway.

Veratrum fimbriatum is a species of false hellebore, a type of plant closely related to the lily. Its common names are fringed false hellebore and fringed corn lily. It is endemic to California where it is a rare resident of the northern coastal scrub plant communities of Mendocino and Sonoma Counties. This flowering plant is a stout, hollow-stemmed perennial growing from a thick rhizome. The erect flowering plant bears several large, flat, green leaves near the base of the green stem. The large panicle inflorescence is packed with many distinctive, lacy-fringed flowers each up to a centimeter wide. The flower bud is club-shaped before it opens into a bloom of six frilly tepals, each of which bears two bright green or gold glands. The ovary and sepals extend straight outward as one thick stalk. The fruit is an oval-shaped capsule just under a centimeter long containing the seeds.

Veratrum insolitum is a species of false hellebore, a type of plant closely related to the lily. Its common name is Siskiyou false hellebore. It is native to the northwestern United States from Washington to far northern California. This flowering plant is a stout, hollow-stemmed perennial growing from a thick rhizome in the clay soil of wet evergreen forests. The erect cornstalk-shaped plant bears several large green elliptical leaves decreasing in size higher up on the grayish stem. The large panicle inflorescence is packed with many off-white hairy flowers just under a centimeter wide each. There are six fringed petals and six stout stamens, each with a club-shaped yellow anther. The fruit is a capsule 2 to 3 centimeters long which contains large winged seeds.

Veratrum nigrum (Black Hellebore) is a medicinal plant and poisonous plant native to Asia and Europe. In China, it, and other false hellebore species are collectively called "li lu".
The roots of V. nigrum and V. schindleri have been used in Chinese herbalism. Li lu is used internally as a powerful emetic of last resort, and topically to kill external parasites, treat tinea and scabies, and stop itching. Some herbalists refuse to prescribe li lu internally, citing the extreme difficulty in preparing a safe and effective dosage, and that death has occurred at a dosage of 0.6 grams.

Veratrum viride (Indian Poke, Indian Hellebore, False Hellebore, Green False Hellebore) is a species of Veratrum native to eastern and western (but not central) North America. It is extremely toxic, and is considered a pest plant by farmers with livestock. The species has acquired a large number of common names within its native range, including American False Hellebore, American White Hellebore, Bear Corn, Big Hellebore, Corn Lily, Devils Bite, Duck Retten, Indian Hellebore, Itch-weed, Itchweed, Poor Annie, and Tickleweed.

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