Botanical species · safety record

Veratrum album

The EFSA Compendium of Botanicals holds 4 constituent measurements and 8 adverse-effect records for Veratrum album. This page reports what those source records contain and how to reach them. It carries no effect estimate, no dose and no recommendation.

Accepted name in source: Veratrum album L.

4Constituent measurements
8Safety records
6Cited sources
100Licensed products (Canada)

Regulatory presence

Health Canada's Licensed Natural Health Products Database holds 100 licensed products naming Veratrum album as a medicinal ingredient, matched on the exact Latin binomial. A licence records that a product met the regulator's requirements for sale in Canada. It is not evidence that the product works.

Source material stated

  • Adherent roots
  • Broken and dried underground parts
  • Carefully dried rhizomes
  • Dried rhizome
  • Dried rhizome and adherent roots
  • Dried root(s)
  • Dried underground parts
  • Fresh aerial part collected at flowering time

What the records describe

Constituents measured

  • Cevadine1
  • Cyclopamine1
  • Veratridine1
  • Veratrum alkaloids1

Plant parts

  • Roots and other underground parts6
  • Leaves3
  • Seed3

Preparations

  • Solvent extraction2

Effect types

  • Other toxicities4
  • Pulmonary and cardiac2
  • Digestive1
  • Neurotoxicity1

Target tissues

  • Digestive2
  • Cardiovascular1
  • Heart1
  • Neurologic1
  • haematological1

Recorded constituents

What analytical work has found in this species, at which plant part and preparation. A measured constituent is a fact about material, not about effect.

SubstancePlant partPreparationConcentrationAnalytical methodSource
CyclopamineRoots and other underground partsSolvent extraction—High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)/Liquid Chromatography (LC)Resolve DOI
CevadineSeed—0.023 PercentLC-MSNo resolvable identifier
VeratridineSeed—0.126 PercentLC-MSNo resolvable identifier
Veratrum alkaloidsRoots and other underground partsSolvent extraction—LC-MS-MS (QqQ)No resolvable identifier

Recorded adverse effects

Adverse effects reported in the source literature, most often in animal or laboratory models at a stated preparation and dose.

EffectTarget tissuePlant partPreparationTest organismTest typeSource
DigestiveDigestiveRoots and other underground parts—Human (as organism)Case reportResolve DOI
NeurotoxicityNeurologicLeaves—Human (as organism)Case reportResolve DOI
Other toxicitiesDigestiveLeaves—Human (as organism)Case reportResolve DOI
Other toxicities—Roots and other underground parts—Human (as organism)Case reportResolve DOI
Pulmonary and cardiacCardiovascular / haematologicalLeaves—Human (as organism)Case reportResolve DOI
Pulmonary and cardiacHeartRoots and other underground parts—Human (as organism)Case reportResolve DOI
Other toxicities—Seed—Human (as organism)Case reportNo resolvable identifier
Other toxicities—Roots and other underground parts—Human (as organism)Case reportNo resolvable identifier

Cited sources

The literature the compendium cites for this species. Metatron Health has no relationship with these authors or journals and earns nothing from citing them.

  1. Gaillard, Y., Pepin, G. LC-EI-MS determination of veratridine and cevadine in two fatal cases of Veratrum album poisoning . Journal of analytical toxicology, 2001, vol. 25, no. 6, p. 481-485.
  2. Gilotta, Irene., Brvar, Miran. Accidental poisoning with Veratrum album mistaken for wild garlic (Allium ursinum) . Clinical toxicology, 2010, vol. 48, no. 9, p. 949-952. DOI
  3. Grobosch, T., Binscheck, T., Martens, F., Lampe, D. Accidental Intoxication with Veratrum album. Journal of analytical toxicology, 2008, vol. 32, no. 9, p. 768-773.
  4. Rauber-Luethy, Christine., Halbsguth, Ulrike., Kupferschmidt, Hugo., Koenig, Naoko., Megevand, Chloe., Zihlmann, Karin., Ceschi, Alessandro. Low-dose exposure to Veratrum album in children causes mild effects - a case series . Clinical toxicology, 2010, vol. 48, no. 3, p. 234-237. DOI
  5. Zagler, B., Zelger, A., Salvatore, C., Pechlaner, C., De Giorgi, F., Wiedermann, CJ. Dietary poisoning with Veratrum album - A report of two cases. Wiener klinische wochenschrift, 2005, vol. 117, no. 3, p. 106-108. DOI
  6. Wilson, Steven Ray., Strand, Martin Frank., Krapp, Andreas., Rise, Frode., Herstad, Gunnar., Malterud, Karl Egil., Krauss, Stefan. Hedgehog antagonists cyclopamine and dihydroveratramine can be mistaken for each other in Veratrum album . Journal of pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis, 2010, vol. 53, no. 3, p. 497-502. DOI

Boundary

A constituent measurement is a fact about material at a stated preparation, not a statement about what that material does in a person. An adverse-effect or genotoxicity record is an observation reported in a source, most often in an animal or laboratory model. Neither is a Metatron Health conclusion about causality, human risk or benefit, and the absence of a record is not proof that a preparation is safe. Nothing here is diagnosis, prescribing or individual medical care.

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