ergot poisoning

• 麦角中毒

関

ergotism

WordNet

1. poisoning by ingestion of ergot-infected grain products; characterized by thirst and diarrhea and nausea and cramping and vomiting and abnormal cardiac rhythms; in severe cases it can cause seizures and gangrene of the limbs
2. a fungus that infects various cereal plants forming compact black masses of branching filaments that replace many grains of the plant; source of medicinally important alkaloids and of lysergic acid (同)Claviceps_purpurea
3. a plant disease caused by the ergot fungus
4. the physiological state produced by a poison or other toxic substance (同)toxic condition, intoxication
5. the act of giving poison to a person or animal with the intent to kill
6. a cgs unit of work or energy; the work done by a force of one dyne acting over a distance of one centimeter
7. (used as a sentence connector) therefore or consequently

PrepTutorEJDIC

1. 麦角(ばっかく)病(麦角菌によるライ麦など穀物の病気) / 麦角(止血剤・子宮収縮剤用)
2. エルグ(エネルギーの単位)
3. それ故に,したがって

Wikipedia preview

出典(authority):フリー百科事典『ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』「2016/01/28 16:45:37」(JST)

wiki en

[Wiki en表示]

Ergotism
Advanced ergotism with gangrene
Classification and external resources
Specialty	emergency medicine
ICD-10	T62.2
ICD-9-CM	988.2
DiseasesDB	30715
MeSH	D004881

Ergotism is the effect of long term ergot poisoning, traditionally due to the ingestion of the alkaloids produced by the Claviceps purpurea fungus that infects rye and other cereals, and more recently by the action of a number of ergoline-based drugs. It is also known as ergotoxicosis, ergot poisoning and Saint Anthony's Fire. Ergot poisoning is a proposed explanation of bewitchment.

Signs and symptoms

The symptoms can be roughly divided into convulsive symptoms and gangrenous symptoms.

Convulsive

Convulsive symptoms of ergotism

Convulsive symptoms include painful seizures and spasms, diarrhea, paresthesias, itching, mental effects including mania or psychosis, headaches, nausea and vomiting. Usually the gastrointestinal effects precede central nervous system effects.

Gangrenous

The dry gangrene is a result of vasoconstriction induced by the ergotamine-ergocristine alkaloids of the fungus. It affects the more poorly vascularized distal structures, such as the fingers and toes. Symptoms include desquamation or peeling, weak peripheral pulses, loss of peripheral sensation, edema and ultimately the death and loss of affected tissues. Vasoconstriction is treated with vasodilators.

Causes

Claviceps purpurea fungal sclerotia growing on barley

The toxic ergoline derivatives are found in ergot-based drugs (such as methylergometrine, ergotamine or, previously, ergotoxine). The deleterious side-effects occur either under high dose or when moderate doses interact with potentiators such as erythromycin.

Historically, eating grain products contaminated with the fungus Claviceps purpurea also caused ergotism.

The alkaloids can also pass through lactation from mother to child, causing ergotism in infants.

Identification

Ergot in barley

Dark-purple or black grain kernels, known as ergot bodies, can be identifiable in the heads of cereal or grass just before harvest. In most plants the ergot bodies are larger than normal grain kernels, but can be smaller if the grain is a type of wheat. A larger separation between the bodies and the grain kernels show the removal of ergot bodies during grain cleaning.

Prevention

Removal of ergot bodies is done by placing the yield in a brine solution; the ergot bodies float while the healthy grains sink. Infested fields need to be deep plowed; ergot will not germinate if buried more than one inch deep and won't spread their spores in the air. Rotating crops, using non-susceptible plants, helps reduce infections since ergot spores only live one year. Crop rotation and deep tillage, such as deep moldboard plowing, are important components in managing ergot, as many cereal crops, in the 21st Century, are sown with a "no-till" practice (new crops are seeded directly into the stubble from the previous crop to reduce soil erosion.) Wild and escaped grasses and pastures can be mowed before they flower to help limit ergot infections.

Chemical controls can be used, but are not considered economical especially in commercial operations, and germination of ergot spores can still occur under favorable conditions.

History

Painting by Matthias Grünewald of a patient suffering from advanced ergotism from approximately 1512–16 CE

Epidemics of the disease were identified throughout history, though the references in classical writers are inconclusive. Rye, the main vector for transmitting ergotism, was not grown much around the Mediterranean. When Fuchs 1834 separated references to ergotism from erysipelas and other afflictions, he found the earliest reference to ergotism in the Annales Xantenses for the year 857: "a Great plague of swollen blisters consumed the people by a loathsome rot, so that their limbs were loosened and fell off before death."

In the Middle Ages, the gangrenous poisoning was known as "holy fire" or "Saint Anthony's fire", named after monks of the Order of St. Anthony who were particularly successful at treating this ailment. The 12th century chronicler Geoffroy du Breuil of Vigeois recorded the mysterious outbreaks in the Limousin region of France, where the gangrenous form of ergotism was associated with the local Saint Martial. According to Snorri Sturluson, in his Heimskringla, King Magnus, son of King Harald Sigurtharson, who was the half brother of Saint King Olaf Haraldsson, died from ergotism shortly after the Battle of Hastings.

The blight, named from the cock's spur it forms on grasses, was identified and named by Denis Dodart, who reported the relation between ergotized rye and bread poisoning in a letter to the French Royal Academy of Sciences in 1676 (John Ray mentioned ergot for the first time in English the next year). "ergotism", in this modern sense, was first recorded in 1853; however, Sir Thomas Browne in his Christian Morals (published posthumously in 1716 although penned sometime in the 1670s) also made mention of 'ergotisms' . Browne in turn, may have been introduced to the word through correspondence with John Ray.

Notable epidemics of ergotism occurred up into the 19th century. Fewer outbreaks have occurred since then due to rye being carefully monitored in developed countries. A severe outbreak of something akin to ergot poisoning occurred, however, in the French village of Pont-Saint-Esprit in 1951, resulting in five deaths. The outbreak, and the diagnostic confusion surrounding it, are vividly described in John Grant Fuller's book The Day of St Anthony's Fire.

There is evidence of ergot poisoning serving a ritual purpose in the ritual killing of certain bog bodies.

When milled, the ergot is reduced to a red powder, obvious in lighter grasses but easy to miss in dark rye flour. In less wealthy countries, ergotism still occurs; an outbreak in Ethiopia occurred in mid-2001 from contaminated barley. Whenever there is a combination of moist weather, cool temperatures, delayed harvest in lowland crops and rye consumption, an outbreak is possible.

Poisonings due to consumption of seeds treated with mercury compounds are sometimes misidentified as ergotism. As Dr. Simon Cotton (member of the Chemistry Department of Uppingham School, UK) notes, there have been numerous cases of mass-poisoning due to consumption of mercury-treated seeds.

Salem witchcraft accusations

The convulsive symptoms that can be a result of consuming ergot-tainted rye have also been said to be the cause of accusations of bewitchment that spurred the Salem witch trials. This medical explanation for the theory of “bewitchment” is one first propounded by Linnda R. Caporael in 1976 in an article in Science. In her article, Caporael argues that the convulsive symptoms, such as crawling sensations in the skin, tingling in the fingers, vertigo, tinnitus aurium, headaches, disturbances in sensation, hallucination, painful muscular contractions, vomiting, and diarrhea, as well as psychological symptoms, such as mania, melancholia, psychosis, and delirium, were all symptoms reported in the Salem witchcraft records. Caporael also states there was an abundance of rye in the region as well as climate conditions that could support the tainting of rye. In 1982, historian Mary Matossian raised Caporael’s theory in an article in American Scientist in which she argued that symptoms of “bewitchment” resemble the ones exhibited in those afflicted with ergot poisoning.

The hypothesis that ergotism could explain cases of bewitchment has been subject to debate and has been criticized by several scholars. Within a year of Caporael’s article, the historians Spanos and Gottlieb argued against the idea in the same journal. In Spanos and Gottlieb’s rebuttal to Caporael’s article, they concluded that there are several flaws in the explanation of ergot poisoning as a cause of conditions associated with cases of alleged bewitchment. For example, they argued that, if the food supply was contaminated, the symptoms would have occurred on a house-by-house basis, not just in particular individuals. Historian Leon Harrier has challenged this theory by claiming that even if supplies were properly cooked, residents suffering from stomach ulcers had a risk of absorbing the toxin through the stomach lining, offering a direct route to the bloodstream. Being similar to Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), the chemical composition of the average human's stomach would be too acidic for the ergot to survive, especially if the food was properly cooked. But, if some residents were malnourished and suffering from bleeding stomach ulcers, there is valid reasoning to say that, while most of the residents would not be affected by ingesting contaminated grains, a small percentage could have become affected, offering an explanation for why ergotism was never initially recognized. Harrier has even argued that the numbers could have been larger, possibly even the entire town, but, due to the trials on bewitchment and heresy, and the fear of being accused and subsequently executed, few could come forward while suffering from legitimate medical conditions. Spanos and Gottlieb also state that ergot poisoning has additional symptoms not associated with the events in Salem and that the proportion of children afflicted was less than in a typical ergotism epidemic. The anthropologist H. Sidky noted that ergotism had existed for centuries before the Salem witch trials, and argued that its symptoms would have been recognizable during the time of the Salem witch trials.

More recently, it has been pointed out that ergots produced by different strains of Claviceps purpurea, and those growing in different soils, may have expressed different ergot alkaloid compositions. This may explain the different manifestations of ergotism in different outbreaks. For example, an alkaloid, present in high concentrations in ergots from Europe east of the Rhine, may historically have caused convulsive ergotism, while to the west it caused epidemics of gangrenous ergotism.

See also

• Dancing Plague of 1518

References

UpToDate Contents

全文を閲覧するには購読必要です。 To read the full text you will need to subscribe.

• 1. キノコ中毒の臨床症状および評価 clinical manifestations and evaluation of mushroom poisoning
• 2. キノコ中毒のマネージメント management of mushroom poisoning
• 3. シガテラ中毒 ciguatera fish poisoning
• 4. 貝や甲殻類による中毒およびフグによる中毒の概要 overview of shellfish and pufferfish poisoning
• 5. スコンブロイド（ヒスタミン）中毒 scombroid histamine poisoning

English Journal

• Transient ischemic attack caused by cerebral ergotism.

• Gaye-Saavedra GA1, Preve F1, Albisu S1, Legnani M1.
• Arquivos de neuro-psiquiatria.Arq Neuropsiquiatr.2016 Mar;74(3):258. doi: 10.1590/0004-282X20150186. Epub 2015 Nov 24.
• PMID 26602197

• Impacts of Cereal Ergot in Food Animal Production.

• Coufal-Majewski S1, Stanford K2, McAllister T3, Blakley B4, McKinnon J5, Chaves AV6, Wang Y3.
• Frontiers in veterinary science.Front Vet Sci.2016 Feb 25;3:15. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2016.00015. eCollection 2016.
• The negative impacts of ergot contamination of grain on the health of humans and animals were first documented during the fifth century AD. Although ergotism is now rare in humans, cleaning contaminated grain concentrates ergot bodies in screenings which are used as livestock feed. Ergot is found wo
• PMID 26942186

• The identification of QTL controlling ergot sclerotia size in hexaploid wheat implicates a role for the Rht dwarfing alleles.

• Gordon A1, Basler R2, Bansept-Basler P2,3, Fanstone V2, Harinarayan L2,4, Grant PK5, Birchmore R2, Bayles RA2,6, Boyd LA2, O'Sullivan DM2,7.
• TAG. Theoretical and applied genetics. Theoretische und angewandte Genetik.Theor Appl Genet.2015 Dec;128(12):2447-60. doi: 10.1007/s00122-015-2599-5. Epub 2015 Sep 4.
• KEY MESSAGE: Four QTL conferring resistance to ergot were identified in the UK winter wheat varieties 'Robigus' and 'Solstice'. Two QTL co-located with semi-dwarfing alleles at the Rht loci Rht - 1B and Rht - 1D implicating a role of these DELLA proteins in infection success of Claviceps purpurea. T
• PMID 26340982

Related Links

• Ergot Poisoning - Fungal and Protozoan Digestive System ...

Learn more about ergot poisoning in the Boundless open textbook. Ergot poisoning is caused by ingestion of the alkaloids produced by the ergot fungi. ... Ergot poisoning is a type of illness associated with the ingestion of alkaloids ...

• HowStuffWorks "Ergot Poisoning"

Ergot poisoning outbreaks have been recorded from the Middle Ages. Read about ergot poisoning outbreaks and illness like gangrenous and convulsive ergotism. ... This engraving marks the grave of Judge John Hathorne, who ...

Related Pictures

---

★リンクテーブル★

リンク元

「麦角中毒」

「麦角中毒」

　　[★]

英

ergotism、ergot poisoning

関

麦角病