484 



MANUAL OF POISONOUS PLANTS 



Sanguinaria canadensis L. Bloodroot 



Calyx ; sepals 2, light green, falling as the bud opens ; petals 8-12 or more, 

 yz to 1 inch long, oblong-spatulate, spreading, white or slightly rose-tinted, 

 increasing in size for two or three days after the bud opens, and then falling 

 away; stamens about 24, in several rows, much shorter than the petals, those 

 in the inner rows longest ; anther narrow, opening longitudinally. 



Distribution. In rich woods, N. S. to Manitoba, Neb., Fla. and Ark. 



Poisonous and Medical Properties. Lloyd in White's book on dermatitis, 

 writes : 



There are two native drugs that are very irritant to mucous surfaces, so much so 

 that the dust is very disagreeable, and we presume that they would have a similar irritating 

 action on the skin: Bloodroot, and Caulophylhon thalictroides, blue cohosh or pappoose- 

 root. 



Bloodroot has a bitter and acrid taste due to the substance sanguinarin. 

 In small doses, this substance exerts a tonic influence, promoting gastro-in- 

 testinal secretion and thus aiding digestion. On its physiological action. Dr. 

 Millspaugh says of sanguinarin C^qH^^NO^ : "This alkaloid is very acrid to the 

 taste, and toxic, and causes violent sneezing." Millspaugh gives its physiolo- 

 gical action as follows : 



Sanguinaria in toxic doses causes a train of symptoms showing it to be an irritant; it 

 causes nausea, vomiting, sensations of burning in the mucous membranes whenever it 

 comes in contact with them, faintness, vertigo, and insensibility. It reduces the heart's 

 action and muscular strength, and depresses the nerve force, central and peripheral. Death 

 has occurred from overdoses, after the following sequence of symptoms: violent vomiting, 

 followed by terrible thirst and great burning in the stomach and intestines, accompanied 

 by soreness over the region of those organs; heaviness of the upper chest with difficult 

 breathing; dilation of the pupils; great muscular prostration; faintness and coldness of 

 the surface, showing that death follows from cardiac paralysis. 



Rusby says : 



The effects of Sanguinaria canadensis L.. ■ or blood root are distinctly poisonous and 

 Johnson definitely records that fatal results follow overdoses. Yet the rhizome is not at 



Fig. 253. Blood root (5a>t- 

 guinaria canadensis). The col- 

 ored latex contains poisonous 

 alkaloids. 



