Vol. XVII. No. 435. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS, 



411 



PLANTS POISONOUS TO STOCK. 



Recently in Barbados very serious losses of valuable 

 goats have occurred in the flock of one of the most prominent 

 members of the Barbados Goat Society. In response to his 

 invitation the writer of this note went over the grass fields 

 from which he cut his fodder, to see if there were any plants 

 mingled with the grass to the poisonous eflects of which the 

 death of his valuable goats could be attributed. 



The grass was very much inter-penetrated with a growth 

 of Teramnus itiidnatiis, a legminous plant, known in Barba- 

 dos as 'Burn mouth', in some of the Northern Islands as Wis'- 

 This is a climbing plant, with trifoliate leaves, and inconspic- 

 uous, small, yellowish-white papilionaceous flowers, producing 

 slender black beans, about 1 \ inche.s long, covered with a white 

 down. The writer of this note, from his own experience as a 

 rabbit keeper, has found that in Antigua this plant, if fed to 

 rabbits, even in small .juantities, is fatal to them. On the 

 other hand, it is asserted on excellent authority, that goat.s 

 and sheep can feed on it with impunity. 



A few days ago, however, the gentleman referred to 

 above sent to the Imperial Department of Agriculture for the 

 West Indies a specimen of a weed which he had found grow- 

 ing on his land, and which has a bad reputation. This has 

 been identified as SpigcUa aiithclmia, a weed widely distribu- 

 ted in the Lesser Antilles from St Croix to Grenada. In the 

 Northern Islands it is known as 'Worm weed'; in the islands 

 where French is spoken it goes by the name of 'Brinvillier', 

 evidently in allusion to the Marquise of the ISth century, of 

 notoriety as a poisoner; in Barbados it seems to be called 

 'Water weed', probably because it is chiefly found in damp 

 localities. 



This plant has long been used by, the natives of the West 

 Indies as a very efi'ective vermifuge, and that this is certainly 

 its eft'ect is ' shown, not only by its botanic specific name, 

 but also by the fact that another of the same genns (.V. mari- 

 laiidica). is quoted in the Pharmacopceas both of Great 

 Britain and the United States as oflicial for that purpose 



S. anthelmia is, however, a dangerous poison when 

 administered in large doses, as the following extract trans- 

 lated from Flora PhaiicrogamiijU'' des Antillis Francaisea 

 by Reverend Father Duss, .will show:— 



'This plant is better classed among the Loganiacae along 

 with the genus to which it belongs. The root is employed 

 as a vermifuge against intestinal worms. In large doses it 

 is a violent poison. The plant contains, according to Dudley, 

 a volatile alkaloid (spigeline) which is the active poisonous 

 principle, and which possesses close affinities with nicotine 

 and lobe'lline— well-known poisons. It should be employed 

 medicinally with the greatest care, on account of its toxic 

 properties, although it is certainly a eood vermifuge.' 



The British PharmaceuticAl OxA-.x, 1911, also has the 

 warning about spigelia that 'it is said to depress the circula- 

 tion and respiration, and cause loss of muscular power when 

 given in lar>;e doses. The drug is anthelmintic, and is used 

 to expel round worms; it is said to be safe and eflicient if 

 tiven in proper doses, followed by a saline purgative.' 



Now, whether the goats referred to above succumbed to 

 a dose of this poisonous weed can only be determined by 

 a careful analysis of the contents of tlieir stomachs. And 

 even then, it is very difliciilt to determine by p,nt-m,>rtem 

 analysis of stomachs the exact vegetable poison to which 

 death may be attributed. , „ ,, 



One point may be noted: that goats and all other 

 grazing animals seldom eat any poisonous plant, if left to 

 at will, unless driven to do so by hunger, from lack of 



are chiefly fed by cut forage administered ti them, they do 

 not exercise so much discrimination. Too much care, there- 

 fore, can not be taken in seeing that fodder placed before 

 animals fed in confinement is freed from all possibly noxious 

 plants. 



C.H.B. 



graze 

 nutriuous 



AJOWANISEED AND THYMOL. 



Attention is drawn in the Pirjumery and Essi/i/ial Oil 

 Record, September 24, 1918, to the great saving in transport 

 charges which would be ett'ected by distilling aromatic plants 

 in the countries where they are cultivated, and exporting the 

 oils rather than the raw material. 



As has been pointed out in recent issues of this .Journal, 

 and also in other publications of this Department, experiments 

 have been tried in the cultivation of ajowan {Car urn copticinii) 

 in several of these islands, especially in Montserrat. This 

 plant, which before the war was grown on a commercial scale 

 mainly in India, whence the seeds were exported chiefly to 

 Germany, is the principal source of the antiseptic thymol, 

 largely employed in the treatment of hookworm disease. 

 This is extracted from the oil distilled from the seed. During 

 the last few years the plant has been experimentally grown 

 not only in the West Indies, but in the Seychelles. Samples 

 of seeds from plants cultivated in the Seychelles and Jlont- 

 serrat have been examined in the laboratories of the 

 Imperial Institute, and the results of the investigation 

 published in the Bulktin of the Imperial Institute, 

 Vol. XVI, No. 1. Compared with the Indian product, 

 the following results were obtained: oil yield, Indian 

 seed, 3 to 4, per cent. Seychelles, 9 per cent.; Mont- 

 serrat, 3'1 per cent. On the other hand, the Indian oil 

 contained 40 to .5-5 per cent, of thymol; that from the Sey. 

 chelles, 38 per cent. ; and that from Mont.serrat, .54 per cent. 

 The seed from Montserrat was submitted for valuation to 

 three firms of manufacturing chemists. One firm stated 

 that under the present abnormal conditions, ajowan seed oil 

 containing about -"lO per cent, of thymol would probably real- 

 ize not less than lOy. per lb., but they were of opinion that it 

 would probably be essential to undertake the distillation of 

 the seed locally, as the heavy freight charges on the seed, if 

 shipped to Europe, would make competition with Indian 

 thymol impossible. The opinion of a second firm corobora- 

 ted that of the first, viz. that it would be more economical to 

 distil the oil locally than to export the seed. The third firm 

 also considered that the percentage of thymol in the oil 

 from .Montserrat seed was satisfactory, but in view of 

 the difficulties of freight, aud the competition of thyme oil 

 from Spain as a source of thymol, it would be better, if the 

 distillation of the seed could be carried out economically in 

 Montserrat, to export the oil rather than the seed. 



The results of this examination of the Montserrat 

 ajowan seed, together with the market reports on its value, 

 appear to indicate that the plant could be successfully cul- 

 tivated in that island as a source of thymol. The actual 

 yield of ajowan seed per acre in countries where it is already 

 grown does not appear to be on record, so that comparisons 

 on this point are not possible. The Perfumery and Essen- 

 tial Oil Record quoted above gives the price of thyme oil 

 on the London market as from Is. 6d. to 8.i-. per lb., and the 

 price of thymol crystals at from 47.i-. Gd. to .50.v. per lb. 

 It might be possible in Montserrat, if the cultivation of 

 ajowan proves satisfactory, to combine the distillation of the 



I) 



iler On the other hand, when such anim^jg oil with the present bay oil industry. 



