Fragrant Yellow Flowers
Earlier this year I happened upon some sweet smelling flowers that grew in abundance on long thin vines, climbing up shrubs and small trees near some
bluffs. Out of curiosity I decided to see if they were like honeysuckles or other flowers that taste sweet at the base of the flower if touched to the
tongue. So I sampled a few and they were indeed quite sweet.
After identifyling the plant by seaching Google there was more to learn about the plant, Gelsemium sempervirens. Later, I also noticed a mailbox
completely overrun with this vine and it was amazingly fragrant from a distance. So here is what I learned from a mildly curious investigation of a
fragrant yellow flower.
"All parts of this plant contain the toxic strychnine-related alkaloids gelsemine and gelseminine and should not be consumed.[9] The sap may cause
skin irritation in sensitive individuals. Children, mistaking this flower for honeysuckle, have been poisoned by sucking the nectar from the
flower.[10] The nectar is also toxic to honeybees,[11] which may cause brood death when gathered by the bees.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelsemium_sempervirens
"While Arthur Conan Doyle is most commonly known as the mastermind behind Sherlock Holmes, he also was a doctor with a similar madness to that of
Sherlock’s. Doyle’s first academic publication was concerning the effects of Gelsemium intoxication in humans. After observing the successful
treatment of a gelsemium tincture forneuralgia, he became determined to “ascertain how far one might go in taking the drug, and what the primary
symptoms of an overdose might be.” To do this, Doyle ingested increasing doses of his prepared tincture every day and published his results in the
British Medical Journal. He determined that an adult could safely ingest up to 90 minims of the gelsemium tincture (1 minim = 1/480 fluid ounces)."
"Gelsemine (C20H22N2O2) is an alkaloid that comes from the flowering plant, Gelsemium sempervirens, and is a highly toxic compound that acts as a
paralytic and often results in death. It acts as an agonist for the glycine receptor with a significantly higher binding affinity than glycine. Recent
pharmacological research has suggested that this compound can be effective in the treatment of anxiety and other conditions, and is searching for a
safe way to utilize these beneficial effects."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelsemine#cite_note-8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVr9HPiD-y0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kTA7J9r4Bg
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