It’s Just a Bunch of
Hocus Pocus…
In the middle ages, bread was prepared with rye. I bet you
are asking what the hell does bread have to do with witches and how does this
relate to molecular biology? Well, the fungus ergot, Claviceps purpurea, can be found on damp rye, and when a person
eats very little, it can be a powerful hallucinogen. The hallucinogen that is
responsible is ergotamine and lysergic acid amide, which is structurally
similar to LSD and contains alkaloids. An alkaloid is a cluster of naturally
occurring molecular compounds that are comprised of basic nitrogen atoms. (That
is what this has to do with molecular biology, in case you were wondering…) However,
in great quantities, it can be fatal. People who ate the bread often danced
eccentrically in the streets, jibber-jabbering gobbledygook, and foamed at the
mouth, until they fell down in the streets from fatigue. However, others who
ingested it, suffered from St. Anthony’s fire, which caused mass outbreaks of
seizures, diarrhea, vomiting, itching, and dry gangrene in the extremities.
For the drug user to intake their drugs, they practiced a
delivery method that was more complex than ingestion. When ingested orally, the
consumers would have disagreeable side effects like nausea, itching, headaches,
etc. Then it was discovered that absorbing the drugs through the skin would
give a better outcome, but the best were the sweat glands and the mucus membranes
of the genital region. In order to reach the mucus membranes of the genitalia,
early drug users would use brooms. Brooms were also linked to pagan ceremonies,
because it was perceived to stabilize both male and female vivacities (the
penis fashioned handle and the bristles to describe the female), and was often exercised
in marriage services. Other plants were also experimented on for their
hallucinogenic properties like nightshade, mandrake, hemlock, and henbane.
Ergotism could have also been a cause for the Salem witch
trials. Rye was used heavily by the people of Salem, Massachusetts. Symptoms of
ergotism were scratchy skin, burning sensations, phantasms, etc., which were
identical to the ailments that the betwiched people of salem complained of.
Ergot flourishes in humid environments, which is exactly what the weather
condition that transpired in Salem preceding to the Salem witch trials was.
Witches have also been associated with toads, which had been
used to exercise religious rites for thousands of years. Some toads are known
to secrete hallucinogens from glands on the rear of their heads. Some means of
extracting the hallucinogen is licking the toad, milking the toad, and grinding
up the desiccated skin of the deceased toad. However, the in some circumstances
the desired material contains a mixture of toxic chemicals. Although, the
molecule responsible for the hallucinations is bufotenin, a chemical similar to
the drug, psilocin, which is found in “shrooms.”
http://www.damninteresting.com/bad-rye-and-the-salem-witches/
Also some of the information was taken from Dr. Chi Yu’s
notes on Hallucinogens!
It's pretty "spooky" how a lot of structures for drugs like these differ by just one or two bonds.
ReplyDeleteVery informational post!
ReplyDeleteI think the contrast in the level of creativity these people exhibited with the amount of critical thinking about what was happening is sad to the point of being funny. They could think about it enough to realize that if they smeared broom handles with the stuff, it would absorb into their systems better and they would get a better trip with less of the 'bad' effects than when they ingested it; but not enough to realize that it was related to certain seasonal conditions during harvest and crop storage rather than speculated behavior, and they persecute and kill each other when they most desperately need community cooperation to survive food shortages.
ReplyDeleteI like how you've incorporated what we've learned from our other course in this post. Sad to see that this is one of your last Halloween themed posts :-/
ReplyDeleteI know, and I am stumped about what to write about next week.
ReplyDelete