It is said that Guan Gong flooded the Seventh Army and threatened Huaxia, but was shot in the arm by Cao Ren of Fancheng with an arrow, and it festered. In the midst of boredom, the famous doctor Hua Tuo came to visit. He lowered his robe and stretched out his arms for Tuo to see. Tuo Yue: This is a crossbow arrow wound, in which there is a medicine of aconitum, which penetrates straight into the bone; if it is not treated early, this arm is useless. So Hu scraped the bones to cure the poison, and Guan Gong calmed down.
This is the description in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Hua Tuo saw at a glance that the arrow had the poison of aconitum without a laboratory, and it was cured. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms also records this incident, but does not mention the black head. Because if it is really the poison of aconitum, Guan Gong can eat Hua Tuo for the rest of his life.
Just looking at Guan Gong's big red face, I felt very painful
01 The most common large poisonous weed
Aconitum is an important plant in the angiosperm subphylum buttercup family, with an extremely rich species, about 300 species worldwide, distributed in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere, mainly in Asia, followed by Europe and North America.
There are about 170 species of aconitum plants in China, which are widely distributed. Except for Hainan, it is distributed in all provinces and regions, and it is very common in the wild, which is one of our most "visibility" and most toxic plants.
Europe has long used aconitum to decorate gardens, and there are many varieties of horticulture
Aconitum contains a variety of alkaloids, the most important and famous, is the aconitine.
From a variety of crime novels, reasoning animations, everyone may have heard of this poison, it is simply "touch the grass and trees to death, to bite people without healing" level, a second still chatting, bgm a change, upside down to die.
Aconitum bibimbap???
Image from the web
This is really not nonsense - the lethal amount of pure aconitine is about 5mg. In other words, one gram of aconitum can poison 200 people. Even if the aconitum content of aconitine is limited, it is quite dangerous. In the rural areas of northern China, aconitum has a common name called "medicine dog Dan", if the dog accidentally eats the aconitum (or someone wants to deliberately kill the dog and mix the aconitum into the food), a small root is enough to poison a dog.
The toxicity mechanism of aconitine to the human body is not completely clear, but the direction is to rush to the heart, such as arrhythmias, ventricular tachycardia, atrial fibrillation, etc., which eventually leads to death. Although few people die directly from eating aconitum in reality, there are many deaths that have heard rumors of using aconitum to soak wine or overdosing Chinese herbal medicines containing aconitum. There is also a North American man who ate aconitum flowers to hang up, which is more bizarre, I don't know if it is a coincidence.
Northern aconitum, commonly known as grass wu
In fact, the plants of the genus Aconitum are characteristic and good-looking, especially a piece of calyx like a cylindrical hat, the two large petals on the top are like a handle under the hat, the whole looks like a warrior's helmet, which is very easy to identify in the wild.
The innermost part of the "helmet" is where the nectar is stored. Such a complex structure can make insects such as bees take more detours. Increase the efficiency with which they pollinate themselves.
02 It is you who is you who is you
Although aconitum is toxic, modern medicine has proved that many of the alkaloids it contains are effective, but the toxic side effects are too large, and it is necessary to use it with caution. Even the ancients knew this clearly. The "Compendium of Materia Medica" contains "wufu poison, not used for non-critical diseases".
In traditional medicine, the part of the aconitum that is used is the fleshy root underground. But the ancients observed an interesting phenomenon - some fleshy roots will breed some "small balls" to the side, forming new "roots", and once they grow, they will grow a big purr. Some fleshy roots do not grow these "sub-roots".
The sub-root of the aconitum
Through the anatomical research of Yan Jinjin and others at Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, it was found that the traditionally believed "sub-root" is not completely a sub-root, but a complex breeding body that overwinters, with a root part and a bud part. In the spring, this "sub-root" can germinate new leaves to grow into plants, or it can develop horizontally through buds and become new "sub-roots", so the aconitum underground is often a big beep.
The ancients did not understand this, they called the main root aconitum (also because of the different species, the main root of the aconitum is called Chuanwu, the northern aconitum is called grass wu), and these dripping "sub-roots" are called "appendages". Tianxiong resembles an appendage, slender and long, and is an appendage that has not yet been divided. At present, there is no independent classification of Tianxiong in Chinese medicine.
The aconitum plant common in North China is flattened and looks like a swan on the side
In the eyes of Chinese medicine, although aconitum, appendage and Tianxiong are a plant, the medicinal properties and medicinal effects are different, and the diseases treated are not exactly the same.
It is true that their chemical content is slightly different, but it is still roughly those, and with the different months, they enter different growth cycles, and their own substance content will change, and the ancients still have too many points of classification of the underground part of the aconitum.
03 Poison arrow wood in China
Guan Gong scraped bones to cure poison, concubines poisoned each other, and detectives tested drugs every day. Even if there is enough easy to obtain aconitine, the effect is so fast, such a toxic poison for poisoning is really not a good choice - you just left on the front foot, the concubine hung up, a check within a moment you have come, this is not looking for death?
However, there is one case in which this poisoning is "good", that is, two armies are against each other, each with its own master. Don't think that the poisonous weapons, poisonous darts, and poisonous arrows mentioned in the novel are all fake, and the poisonous arrows made of aconitum have been filled in the classics from ancient times to the present.
Bai Juyi once said: "Arrow poison mostly uses aconitum, so the cloud is poisonous." The Book of Wei also records that "the Xiongnu harvested aconitum in autumn as poison to shoot animals and animals." The Records of Emperor Xianzong of Daming also records that "the Guozi Supervisor Record Huang Mingshan Chen Zheng Zhen Yi Kou ... Aconitum medicine arrows are shot at the tiger and leopard to kill." It seems that the ancient use of aconitum on battlefields and hunting grounds is certain.
South American poison arrows made from poison dart frogs
Is that good or not?
Estimates are not good. There are many big people who died of poisoned arrows in the legend, such as Genghis Khan, Li Shimin, Chao Gai, etc., but in fact, they can't help but study in detail, especially the death caused by the aconitum poisoned arrows. First of all, the ancient purification technology is limited, so that an arrow with 5mg of pure aconitine is quite difficult, not to mention that the arrow has a lot of loss in the process of manufacturing, transportation, carrying, and shooting.
Take Guan Yu, for example, even if what is said in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is true, he really was poisoned by a poisoned arrow, it is unlikely to be aconitum, because the symptoms are not heart problems, but redness, swelling and ulceration, and we all know today that this is caused by traumatic infection, not poisoning. It is believed that the vast majority of people who died of arrow wounds in ancient times died of infections, tetanus and other things.
It's more terrifying than poison, or physical attacks
From this point of view, arrow poison is even less cost-effective. Painstakingly built, but also have to be protected like a baby, for fear of hurting themselves, the actual effect is not necessarily good. It is better to dip the arrow in the dirty water of the battlefield and smear it on the corpse, with ancient conditions and concepts, perhaps such a "dirty arrow" is more lethal than the "poisonous arrow".
Does it provide a new idea for film and television scripts? Very simple and easy to operate kind.
Written by | Letters float and sink
WeChat Editor | glad