Gelsemium

All three species of this genus are poisonous.

The active components of gelsemium are the alkaloids, which are present in a concentration of about 0.5%. These consist primarily of gelsemine (a highly toxic compound related to strychnine), with lesser amounts of related compounds (gelsemicine, gelsedine, etc). Other compounds found in the plant include scopoletin (also called gelsemic acid), a small amount of volatile oil, fatty acid and tannins.[https://www.drugs.com/npp/gelsemium.html Drugs, Gelsemium]

Gelsemium has been shown to contain methoxyindoles.{{cite journal|doi=10.1021/jo01059a001 | volume=27 | issue=12 | title=Gelsedine1 | year=1962 | journal=The Journal of Organic Chemistry | pages=4123–4126 | last1 = Wenkert | first1 = Ernest}}{{cite journal|doi=10.1107/S0365110X6200078X | volume=15 | issue=4 | title=The crystal structure of (−)-N-methyl-gelsemicine hydriodide | year=1962 | journal=Acta Crystallographica | pages=301–309 | last1 = Przybylska | first1 = M.| doi-access=free | bibcode=1962AcCry..15..301P }}

As late as 1906, a drug called Gelsemium, made from the rhizome and rootlets of Gelsemium sempervirens, was used in the treatment of facial and other neuralgias. It also proved valuable in some cases of malarial fever, and was occasionally used as a cardiac depressant and in spasmodic affections, but was inferior for this purpose to other remedies.{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Gelsemium|year=1906}}

• On 23 December 2011, Long Liyuan, a Chinese billionaire, died after eating cat stew that was allegedly poisoned with Gelsemium elegans.{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16409523 |title=China tycoon "ate poisoned cat-meat stew" |work=BBC News |date=4 January 2012}}{{cite magazine |magazine=Time |date=2012-01-03 |url=http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2103603,00.html |title=Police: Poisoned cat meat killed China tycoon |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120209202150/http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2103603,00.html |archive-date=2012-02-09 |df=dmy-all |url-status=dead |quote=[...] is suspected of poisoning the hotpot with the herb Gelsemium elegans, according to a statement on the microblog of the investigating police.}}
• On 10 November 2012, Alexander Perepilichny 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.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/may/18/russian-whistleblower-traces-poison-stomach-plant-expert-says-alexander-perepilichnyy-inquest |title=Russian whistleblower had traces of rare poison in stomach, plant expert says |work=The Guardian |location=London, UK}}{{cite news |title=Alexander Perepilichny: Rare Chinese poison found in stomach of Russian whistleblower |url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-20/poison-chemical-found-on-russian-who-died-in-uk3a-report/6483118 |work=ABC News |access-date=2 June 2015 |date=20 May 2015}} However, this was later denied by an expert at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, the Police and coroner concluded that he died of natural causes.{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43767428 |title=[Alexander Perepilichnyy: The questions raised by Russian whistleblower inquest] |work=BBC News}}

The poison affects the vision and respiration.{{cite web |url=https://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/g/gelsem07.html |title=Gelsemium |website=Botanical.com |access-date=2 June 2015}} Symptoms can appear almost immediately.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/18/gelseminum-deadly-plant-cause-convulsions-paralysis-asphyxia|title=Gelsemium: the plant that can cause convulsions, paralysis and asphyxia |last1=Devlin |first1=Hannah|date=18 May 2015 |website=The Guardian |access-date=2 June 2015}}

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the British physician and author of the Sherlock Holmes 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 published on 20 September 1879, he described that at lower doses he experienced "languor, giddiness, and a partial paralysis of the Ciliary muscle" (in the eye).{{Cite web |last=Conan Doyle |first=Arthur |title=Gelseminum as a Poison |url=https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/Gelseminum_as_a_Poison |access-date=18 May 2025 |website=The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia}} At higher doses he had persistent diarrhea, severe frontal headache, and great depression, and therefore stopped his self-experimentation at 200 minims.{{cite book |editor1=Gibson, J.M. |editor2=Green, R.L. |year=1986 |publisher=University of Iowa Press |title=Letters to the Press |first=Arthur Conan |last=Doyle}}{{cite journal |url=http://www.bmj.com/content/339/bmj.b2861 |title=Arthur Conan Doyle takes it to the limit |last1=Doyle |first1=Arthur Conan |date=20 September 1879 |journal=BMJ |volume=339 |pages=b2861 |publisher=BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. |doi=10.1136/bmj.b2861 |access-date=2 February 2014 |url-access=subscription}}{{cite web |url=http://www.bmj.com/highwire/filestream/45606/field_highwire_article_pdf/0/481 |title=Letters, Notes, and Answers to Correspondents |last1=Doyle |first1=Arthur Conan |date=20 September 1879 |website=British Medical Journal |publisher=BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. |access-date=2 February 2014 |url-access=subscription}}

In his classic early 20th century work on psychotropic drugs Phantastica, German pharmacologist Louis Lewin recounts the seemingly unique case of a person who became addicted (in a manner far more often associated with opiates) to a Gelsemium preparation:

during a severe attack of rheumatism 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. 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, agitated, and discontented. He wasted away. Hallucination 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.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.

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• {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Gelsemium|volume=11|page=559}} This contains a detailed description of the then-common usage and dosage of the drug.

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Category:Gelsemiaceae

Category:Gentianales genera