Aconitum ferox

Aconitum ferox (syn. A. virorum) is a member of the monkshood genus Aconitum of the Ranunculaceae. The common name by which it is most often known in English is Indian Aconite, while the Hindi names used by practitioners of Ayurveda include वत्सनाभ vatsanabha (= "root resembling the navel of a child") and महाविषा mahavisha (= "great poison"). Jyothi, Amala, Naga, Aruna, Rajalakshmi R, Ashwinikumar, S and Bharati "Vatsanabha: an Agada Perspective" in IAMJ: Volume 4; Issue 07; July- 2016 http://www.iamj.in/posts/2016/images/upload/1235_1241.pdf Retrieved at 13.35 on 10/2/22. A tuberous-rooted, herbaceous perennial reaching 1.0 metre tall by 0.5 metres wide and tolerant of many soil types, Aconitum ferox forms the principal source of the Indian poison known variously as bikh, bish, and nabee. It contains large quantities of the extremely toxic alkaloid pseudaconitine (also known as nepaline, after Nepal) and is considered to be the most poisonous plant found in the Himalaya and one of the most poisonous in the world. The symptoms of poisoning usually appear 45 minutes to an hour after the consumption of a toxic dose and consist of numbness of the mouth and throat and vomiting. Respiration slows, with blood pressure falling synchronously, while the heart rate slows to 30-40 beats per minute. Consciousness characteristically remains unclouded until the end, which consists usually of death by asphyxiation, although occasionally of death due to cardiac arrest. Curry poisoning woman found guilty of murder, BBC News 2010-02-10 Monier-Williams lists it as one of the definitions of <bhRGga> or Bhringa.

No narrative description available for this taxon yet.