White Germer

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White Germer
White Germer (Veratrum album subsp. Album) from the Dachstein at an altitude of about 2000 m

White Germer ( Veratrum album subsp. Album ) from the Dachstein at an altitude of about 2000 m

Systematics
Class : Bedecktsamer (Magnoliopsida)
Monocots
Order : Lily-like (Liliales)
Family : Germer family (Melanthiaceae)
Genre : Germer ( Veratrum )
Type : White Germer
Scientific name
Veratrum album
L.

The White Hellebore ( Veratrum album ), and White-Germer called, is a plant from the family of melanthiaceae (Melanthiaceae). It is also called (White) Hellebore , Hammer Wurz , wurzn inhibitors (t) , Lauskraut or Lauswurz referred.

description

Illustration for the White Germer ( Veratrum album ) in Otto Wilhelm Thomés Flora of Germany, Austria and Switzerland (Gera 1885)
Often at the White Germer, like here on Monte Baldo, only sterile specimens can be seen
Important information is missing from this article or section. Help Wikipedia by researching and pasting it .

The White Germer grows as a perennial herbaceous plant and reaches heights of 50 to 150 centimeters. The inside of the root is white. The leaves are alternate , screwy, almost three lines. The lowest leaves are broad oval and are up to 20 centimeters long, the upper ones are lanceolate. All leaves are slightly folded along the leaf veins and encompass the stem.

The White Germer flowers only after a few years of vegetative growth. The flowering period extends from June to August. The multi-flowered, paniculate inflorescence is about 50 centimeters long. The funnel flowers are 12 to 15 millimeters in size and white, greenish or yellowish. The plant smells very intrusive, especially when the sun is shining. The fruit heads are similar to those of the externally similar but unrelated yellow gentian, as a winter stand, capable of winterly spreading their narrow-winged, easily blown seeds.

The chromosome number for both subspecies is 2n = 32.

Occurrence

The distribution area of Veratrum album ranges from Europe to Russia's Far East. In Europe it includes the Alps and their foothills, the Apennines and Eastern Europe. As location damp meadows, pastures, bearings, are tall herb corridors and fens preferred by the valley up to an altitude of about 2700 meters. In Austria, Veratrum album has a high "degree of distribution". The white Germer has its main occurrence in societies of the Rumicion alpinae association, but also occurs in societies of the order Adenostyletalia and in the foothills of the Alps also in societies of the Molinion or Alno-Ulmion associations.

Systematics

The first publication of Veratrum album was in 1753 by Carl von Linné .

Section of an inflorescence of Veratrum album subsp. album from Muottas Muragl in the Upper Engadin
Flowers of Veratrum album subsp. lobelianum from Muottas Muragl in the Upper Engadin

There are two subspecies, which some authors also regard as species:

  • Veratrum album subsp. album : With whitish flowers and green leaf veins . In the Allgäu Alps, this subspecies rises in Vorarlberg on the ridge between Kanzelwand and Schüsser up to 2050 meters above sea level.
  • Veratrum album subsp. lobelianum (Bernh.) Arcang. (Syn .: Veratrum lobelianum Bernh. ): With yellowish-green flowers and darker green leaf veins. This subspecies occurs more often in lower altitudes.

Common names

In Old High German the Germer was called "germarrum", "germâra"; Popular names are "Germele", "Gerbere", "Görbela", "Görbala", "Geermäder", "Germägä" (Switzerland), "Hemmer" (Lower Austria), "Hammer" (Carinthia), "Hemmern" (Carinthia, Tyrol), "Hammerwurz", "Hemad", "Hemat'n" (Alpine countries), "Hematwurzen" (Berchtesgaden), "Hematwurz'n" (Lower Austria), "Tschamarika", "Tschemer", "Zemmer" (Carinthia) , "Lauskraut" (Austria, Tyrol, Swabia), "Lauswurz" (Allgäu), "Lusworza" (Switzerland: St. Gallen), "Schwab'nwurz" (Lower Austria), "Chäferworzel", "Chäfer" (St. Gallen ), "Oldocke", "Wendedocken" (Giant Mountains).

In some cases, the names of corridors and properties built on them also go back to such names, which are sometimes used for other Germer species (such as Schwarzer or Grüner Germer). Examples:

confusion

When not in bloom, the white Germer can be confused with the yellow gentian ( Gentiana lutea ), whose leaves are arranged in a cross-opposed manner.

Toxicity

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

Veratrum album is very poisonous. It contains all parts, but particularly in the rootstock, toxic alkaloids as Protoveratrin and Germerin . From antiquity to the early modern period, the occasionally as was condisum called Mark hellebore as a diuretic, menstrual promoting and excess or spoiled juices purgierendes drug use. The plant, also known as helleborus albus , was used in particular as an emetic . The alkaloid content decreases with increasing altitude of the plant location. It is around 1.5 percent at about 700  m and drops to 0.2 percent for plants in the highest elevations (about 2500  m ).

Medical poisoning has also been reported as a result of mistaking galangal root ( Rhizoma galangae ) with germer root ( Rhizoma veratri ).

The symptoms manifest themselves in vomiting , severe diarrhea , feeling cold, muscle cramps, hallucinations , shortness of breath and states of collapse . Death can occur between three and twelve hours after ingestion of the poison. If symptoms of poisoning occur, a hospital should be visited or the emergency doctor should be called. The administration of activated charcoal and repeated gastric lavage with potassium permanganate are recommended as countermeasures . Long-term artificial ventilation has proven effective in the case of impending respiratory paralysis . Otherwise, symptomatic treatment with heat, circulatory stabilization and the administration of painkillers is indicated.

The New Zealand toxicologist Leo Schep from New Zealand's National Poisons Center claims in a study that poisoning by the White Germer was the most likely cause of the death of Alexander the Great . The White Germer was fermented by the Greeks as a herbal remedy to induce vomiting. This could explain why it took twelve days for him to die.

Experienced cattle do not touch this very poisonous ("+++" in Roth / Daunderer / Kormann) plant, but calves, sheep and goats perish again and again.

Medicine

The decoction of the root was used against lice and cockroaches. In ancient times the plant was used as a murder poison and as an arrow poison . The white Germer was used medically as a remedy for high blood pressure. Because of its very high toxicity, the plant is only used in homeopathy today.

The ancient world knew “elleborus leukos” or “Helleborus albus”, which is equated with Veratrum album , whereby medicinal information always refers to the root stock. With Hippocrates it is a common emetic, even with Dioscurides it causes vomiting and sneezing. According to Pliny , it was used against vermin, according to Aëtius for insanity. In Bocks Kreutterbuch (1565), Germer is emetic , purging and diuretic , helps with leprosy , melancholy , epilepsy , dizziness , "vanwitzigkeyt", gout , edema , cramps, four-day fever, old cough and drives out stillbirths, in the nose he cleanses the Head and helps with eye pain. Matthiolus' New-Kreuterbuch (1626) adds lichen , scabies , ulcers , toothache and promotion of the menses. Von Haller uses it as sneeze powder and for scabies, Hufeland also for emotional disorders. Sources of Russian folk medicine point to use in skin ailments, worms, toothache, ulcers and the like. a. of nails, alcoholism, venereal diseases, edema, lice. The 19th century had recommendations for cholera . Others call it heart trouble or myasthenia . The leaves were mixed with snuff . Indians are also said to have known the root as an emetic. According to Samuel Hahnemann's habilitation “De helleborismo veterum” (1812), Veratrum album was the emetic common in Hippocrates' time and the only remedy for the chronically ill. The Homeopathy knows Veratrum album with spasmodic diarrhea and vomiting with exhaustion, but also in mania and megalomania.

swell

literature

  • Xaver Finkenzeller, Jürke Grau: Alpine flowers. Recognize and determine (=  Steinbach's natural guide ). Mosaik, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-576-11482-3 .
  • Manfred A. Fischer, Wolfgang Adler, Karl Oswald: Excursion flora for Austria, Liechtenstein and South Tyrol . 2nd, improved and enlarged edition. State of Upper Austria, Biology Center of the Upper Austrian State Museums, Linz 2005, ISBN 3-85474-140-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Manfred A. Fischer, Wolfgang Adler, Karl Oswald: Excursion flora for Austria, Liechtenstein and South Tyrol . 2nd, improved and enlarged edition. State of Upper Austria, Biology Center of the Upper Austrian State Museums, Linz 2005, ISBN 3-85474-140-5 .
  2. ^ Johann Christoph Röhling : Germany's flora. Volume 2, Wilmans 1826, p. 625.
  3. ↑ Veratrum album L. at Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis.
  4. ↑ Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Veratrum album. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved August 29, 2016.
  5. ^ Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora for Germany and neighboring areas . With the collaboration of Angelika Schwabe and Theo Müller. 8th, heavily revised and expanded edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3131-5 , pp.  122-123 .
  6. ↑ Erhard Dörr, Wolfgang Lippert : Flora of the Allgäu and its surroundings. Volume 1, IHW, Eching 2001, ISBN 3-930167-50-6 , p. 330.
  7. ^ Gerhard Madaus: Textbook of biological remedies. Volume III. Olms, Hildesheim / New York 1976, ISBN 3-487-05892-8 , pp. 2778-2779 (reprint of the Leipzig 1938 edition) ( online ).
  8. ↑ Reit im Winkl.de [1]
  9. ↑ Tiroler Landesmuseum Innsbruck Water names of North Tyrol [2] from marsh plant "veratrum nigrum", page 236
  10. ^ Constantinus Africanus : De gradibus quos vocant simplicium liber. In: Constantini Africani post Hippocratem et Galenum ... Basel 1536, pp. 342–387; here: p. 383
  11. ↑ Lynn Thorndike and Francis S. Benjamin Jr. (Eds.): The herbal of Rufinus. Chicago 1945 (= Corpus of mediaeval scientific texts , 1), p. 104
  12. ^ Ferdinand Peter Moog: On the parable of the brave general in Herophilos. In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 22, 2003, pp. 30-39, here: pp. 31-36.
  13. ↑ "Mystery of Alexander the Great's death solved?"
  14. ^ Gerhard Madaus: Textbook of biological remedies. Volume III. Olms, Hildesheim / New York 1976, ISBN 3-487-05892-8 , p. 2779 (reprint of the Leipzig 1938 edition) ( online ).
  15. ^ Gerhard Madaus: Textbook of biological remedies. Volume III. Olms, Hildesheim / New York 1976, ISBN 3-487-05892-8 , pp. 2778-2785 (reprint of the Leipzig 1938 edition) ( online ).
  16. ↑ Josef M. Schmidt, Daniel Kaiser (Ed.): Samuel Hahnemann. Collected Little Writings. Haug, Heidelberg 2001, ISBN 3-8304-7031-2 , pp. 552-637.
  17. ^ Roger Morrison: Handbook of Key Homeopathic Symptoms and Confirmatory Symptoms. 2nd Edition. Kai Kröger Verlag, Groß Wittensee 1997, ISBN 3-9801945-5-8 , pp. 692-695.

See also

Black Germer

Web links

Commons : Weißer Germer ( Veratrum album )  - album with pictures, videos and audio files