Natural poisons in war
N. Kochergin. Illustration for A. Pushkin's poem "Anchar"
В previous article we talked a little about the evidence for the use of natural plant poisons in biblical, legendary and historical sources, as well as the poison of the acocanthera and the famous curare. Today we will continue this story.
Anchar
Now let's talk about our most famous poisonous tree - anchar. It is well known to everyone thanks to a poem by A. S. Pushkin, which states that anchar is able to kill even at a distance:
"... a black whirlwind ... will run up and rush away, already pernicious."
It also turns out that this tree is also dangerous for other plants - and therefore grows in splendid isolation. And in the note to the text of the poem, the anchar is called the "tree of poison." It must be said that Pushkin did not invent anything, but very conscientiously retold the information about the Anchar, which was widespread at that time in Europe and had already penetrated into Russia. Byron mentioned the Anchar in his famous poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Later, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, Pelham Wodehouse and some other authors also wrote about this tree. The famous English physician, scientist and poet Erasmus Darwin (Charles' grandfather) placed a description of the poisonous tree Upas in the poem Botanical Garden. And in Russia, during the time of Pushkin, the story about the anchar was already published in Children's Reading for the Heart and Mind, published by Novikov. Moreover, the legend of the Anchar penetrated into Russian folk art, and some tales spoke of the deadly “upas-tree”.
But what is known for certain about this famous tree? The word anchar in Javanese has several meanings, one of which is "poison", and in a figurative sense it can be used in the meaning of "watchman". The first use of anchara juice for processing arrows was recorded in China among the Li people in the XNUMXth century AD. e. Later, as a poison for arrows and darts, the juice of this tree began to be used in Borneo and other regions of Southeast Asia.
In the 15th century, the Dutch authorities of the island of Java entrusted the study of the anchar tree and its poison to the botanist G. Rumpfu, who for XNUMX years interviewed local residents, many of whom had nothing to do with the manufacture of poison, but for an appropriate fee they were happy to pass on the stories of third parties . Rumpf managed to find out that the natives extract poison for arrows from the juice of the upas or anchar tree. It was from Rumpf's report that the Europeans learned about the exceptional poisonousness of the anchar:
“Neither other trees, nor shrubs, nor grasses grow under the very tree - not only under its crown, but even at a distance of a thrown stone: the soil there is barren, dark and as if charred. The poisonousness of the tree is such that the birds that land on its branches, having swallowed the poisoned air, fall to the ground in a stupefaction and die, their feathers cover the soil. Everything that is touched by its evaporation perishes, so that all animals avoid it, and birds try not to fly over it.
Rumpf's information was confirmed by the field surgeon of the Dutch army Foersch, who in 1783 published an article in the London Journal in which he claimed that during his journey deep into the island of Java, he even saw human sacrifices to the Anchar. He also said that the Aboriginal rulers send criminals sentenced to death to collect the poisonous juice of the anchar. Of these, allegedly only one in ten returns with poison - and receives a pardon.
A. Itkin. Illustration for A. Pushkin's poem "Anchar"
A. Smirnov. Illustration for A. Pushkin's poem "Anchar"
But in 1805, the French botanist Lecheneau de la Tour did not rely on other people's stories and investigated the “terrible tree” himself. It turned out that anchar is an evergreen tree from the mulberry family (a relative of figs and mulberries), which can be found not only on the island of Java, but also in West Africa, South China, the Fiji Islands, and the Philippines.
Anchar
Anchar tree fruits
Anchar reaches a height of 40 meters, has large leaves (from 7 to 19 centimeters), flowers are collected in spherical heads of a greenish-yellow color and resemble ... toadstools. The fruits are similar to small pears: ripe red, then turn black. A cloudy, rapidly darkening milky juice - latex - is released from the damaged trunk. In some species of anchar, it is really poisonous and causes severe irritation upon contact with the skin. In addition, it contains the alkaloid antiarin, which is similar in chemical structure to digitalis and strophanthin. Therefore, when it enters the bloodstream, it has a cardiotoxic effect. To increase the effectiveness of the anchar poison, it was slowly and continuously heated for a week. The resulting product is called "upas" (hence the second name anchara - upas-tree). The result of this long process of distilling the juice of anchar was unpredictable, since the poison of this tree is unstable and easily destroyed at high temperatures. It is curious that modern toxicologists, as an experiment, by distilling anchar juice with alcohol, managed to achieve a high and life-threatening concentration of poison. But, as you understand, this technology was unknown and inaccessible to the Indians.
In addition to poisonous varieties of anchar, completely harmless trees grow in India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. And on Vitu Island in Papua New Guinea, you can see Bennett's Anchar, whose bark fibers are used to make fabric for bags, as well as rugs.
manchineel tree
With natives armed with poisoned arrows, Europeans also met in the New World - in the West Indies, in Central America and on the Florida peninsula. The warlike Indian tribes of the Caribs, from whose self-name the word “cannibal” originates (in their language it means only “man”), used the poisonous properties of the manchineel tree (Hippomane mancinella), which can sometimes be seen right on the beaches of the Caribbean Islands.
Caribs in a painting by Agostino Brunias, circa 1780
Manchineel tree and its fruits:
The inhabitants of Europe first learned about this plant in 1553 from the book "Chronicle of Peru" written by Pedro Cieza de Leon. The Indians used either a thick liquid flowing from an incision in the bark or the juice of the fruit to treat arrowheads. Cases are described of poisoning water sources into which manchine leaves were thrown, as well as torture by tying the victim to a tree trunk. Contact with any part of the manchineel leads to the development of bullous dermatitis and keratoconjunctivitis. Conjunctivitis is also caused by smoke from burning wood. In general, torment to a person wounded by an arrow moistened with manchineel juice is guaranteed. You can even bring him to suicide, like Hercules, who put on a shirt soaked in the blood of the centaur Nessus. But to kill, especially quickly, will not work. But in battle, one should not inflict pain and suffering on the enemy, but kill him or at least immobilize and make him unable to continue the battle. For this purpose, manchineel juice is not suitable.
bushman poison
This is a whole group of poisons, which may be of plant or animal origin. From plants, the Bushmen use the already familiar acocanteria, as well as spurge (Euphorbia) and Boehm's adenum (Adenium Boehmianum), to prepare poison.
Adenium boehmianum
And some tribes use the hemolymph pupae of leaf beetles. In this liquid, alkaloids of poisonous plants accumulate, the leaves of which these beetles feed on. LD50 diamphotoxin, which is contained in the lymph, is indeed a very strong poison that dramatically lowers the level of hemoglobin. But it does not act immediately, which again makes it unsuitable for use as a chemical warfare agent. A small mammal can die in a few minutes, and a giraffe only after 4-5 days.
Rattlesnake venom
Rattlesnakes are found in a vast area from southern British Columbia in Canada to central Argentina.
Rattlesnake
Their venom has hemotoxic properties and causes tissue necrosis at the site of injury, and neurotoxins can cause temporary paralysis. The poison of these snakes was used by the Indian tribes of North America. The Apaches, for example, mixed rattlesnake venom with crushed red ants, centipedes, and scorpions. An arrow wound, the tip of which was smeared with the resulting poison, was very painful and resembled a real rattlesnake bite. However, if the arrow did not hit a vital organ, usually only people suffering from severe chronic diseases, children and the elderly died. In addition, the toxins of the resulting poison were very unstable, and its effectiveness decreased with prolonged storage.
Batrachotoxin
This is the poison of three species of Colombian leaf frogs (Phyllobates terribilis - "terrible leaf climber"), which causes almost instantaneous paralysis due to the irreversible opening of the sodium channels of nerve cells (neurons). Another manifestation of the action of batrachotoxin is severe cardiac arrhythmias.
Phyllobates terribilis, "terrible leaf climber"
An adult who is hit by a poisoned arrow usually dies within 8 minutes, and there is no antidote. Interestingly, the frogs themselves do not produce poison: they get it by eating poisonous insects and arthropods. And therefore, these frogs are born non-poisonous and cease to be poisonous outside their natural habitat, which, of course, is very upsetting to criminal communities and special services, and is a boon for humanity.
"Ipritka" and hogweed
In conclusion, I would like to say a few words about plants, the juice of which was not used for military purposes, but its unwitting victims could justifiably recall both anchar and manchineel.
In Japan, China and the Kuril Islands, you can find a shrub with the characteristic common name "mustard gas" (mustard gas or mustard gas is a chemical warfare agent first used by the German army on July 12, 1917). In fact, this plant is called oriental sumac (Toxicodendron orientale).
Sumac
Its leaves contain substances that, a few hours or even days after contact with the skin, cause chemical burns on it, similar to eczema complicated by erysipelas.
And in the central and northwestern parts of Russia now, unfortunately, you can often see Sosnovsky's hogweed. It is now also growing in Belarus, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany and Scandinavian countries. In the post-war years, this plant, which grows naturally in the Caucasus and the Middle East, was decided to be grown as a raw material for the production of silage. On the basis of seeds collected in the vicinity of Nalchik, a new variety was even bred, called "Severyanin". But it turned out that the milk of cows eating feed made on the basis of hogweed acquires a bitter taste. Cultivation of hogweed was abandoned, but he no longer needed it. As a weed, Sosnowsky's hogweed shows amazing vitality. Incredibly quickly, he began to conquer more and more new territories, thickets of hogweed sometimes resemble the jungle (the height of individual specimens reaches 4 meters), and even an adult forest recedes under its onslaught.
Borshevik Sosnovsky
Upon contact with open skin, cow parsnip juice containing furanocoumarins causes severe, long-term healing burns that may appear only after a few hours, the sun's rays increase the effects of dermatosis.
It's hard to believe, but the variety of this hogweed "Severyanin" mentioned above was excluded from the State Register of Breeding Achievements Approved for Use only on April 20, 2012. Only from January 1, 2015, he was denied the status of an agricultural crop. And only in December 2015, Sosnovsky's hogweed was included in the Industry Classifier of Weeds of the Russian Federation.
Meanwhile, in Europe and the United States, they are currently trying to stop the spread of a close relative of this plant - Mantegazzi hogweed, which also comes from the Caucasus. It differs from Sosnovsky's cow parsnip in that it looks like a bush.
Mantegazzi hogweed
How it got to Europe is not entirely clear, according to legend, a box with its seeds was presented to Metternich by Alexander I. As an ornamental plant, it was cultivated in Great Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, in Norway they tried to feed cows. But he quickly settled in and went beyond the hedges. By the beginning of the 14th century, it was already growing in 1917 European countries. And in 12, it was brought to New York as an ornamental plant. As a result, Mantegazzi hogweed can now be seen in 2008 US states. The juice of this cow parsnip also contains furanocoumarins, which, when in contact with the skin and interact with ultraviolet light, cause severe burns. In XNUMX, the Hamburg Botanical Gardens named the Mantegazzi hogweed "Poisonous Plant of the Year".
Information