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Higher plants

المؤلف:  Sue Jickells , Adam Negrusz (Editors)

المصدر:  Clarkes Analytical Forensic Toxicology

الجزء والصفحة:  P120-121

2026-09-28

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Higher plants

The use of plants to treat ailments and diseases is a long-established practice worldwide and continues in many parts of the world. For example, muti, the practice of traditional healing in various parts of southern Africa, makes extensive use of various plants. Many pharmaceutical medicines originate from plants, the most obvious examples being salicylic acid from Salix alba and other Salix spp., atropine from the Jimson weed Datura stramonium, digoxin from the foxglove Digitalis purpurea and morphine from the opium poppy Papaver somniferum; this last species also gives rise to heroin, which has become an abused drug in many countries.

Routes of exposure to plant toxins can be varied. Ingestion is the most obvious route but this can be accidental, for example through inadequate preparation of plant foodstuffs (e.g. cassava Manihot esculenta and the fruit of the ackee tree Blighia sapida), through deliberate malicious administration or though poorly administered medical treatment. Contact with plants such as hogweed Heracleum sphondylium can give rise to serious skin inflammations. Because of the wide variety of plants that are toxic, their geographical variability and their widespread and various uses, a few examples only are discussed here. For an overview of the analysis of plant toxins, see Gaillard and Pepin (1999).