Ergot
Ergot and its disease ergotism have been a worldwide plague to humans ever since humans have started to harvest and cultivate grains in all their forms. Although outbreaks of ergotism still occur periodically they have all but become nonexistent in the modern era. Ergot has had beneficial effects as well. Ergot has produced medicines, which are vital to the medicine world. Ergot has produced in the world's eyes an ugly stepsister to its medicines: LSD. D-lysergic acid diethylamide known to the world as LSD is a derivative of ergot. Ergot has had a far and wide-ranging impact on man unrealized by most people. Ergot fungi are molds that infect rye and other cereals and wild grasses (Microsoft Encarta 1999). The scientific name of the most prevalent form of ergot is Claviceps Purpurea. When wind-tossed spores of ergot land on a healthy stigma of grains or grasses they enter, as does pollen, into the ovary and begin to form a fine mycelial network (Salvador and Kolla 1). The mycelia network commonly called honeydew begins forming asexually produced spores, which are called conidiospores (Walker 546). The honeydew is a sugary-like thing which attract insects who feed on the sugary substance and they in turn carry spores w
After ingesting LSD, the user will experience optical changes, inability to concentrate, phases of uncontrollable laughter, anxiousness, and the quite typical experience of the subject standing outside of the body watching these events (Salvador and Kolla 2). Ergot has been widely used for many centuries. People during this time used to make pilgrimages to Egypt where the shrine of St. The way these two medicines work is they constrict blood vessels and make smooth muscles contract (Walker 546). Though ergot produces useful medicines there is an ugly stepsister to the helpful uses of this fungi, LSD. Quite often bodily extremities turn black, dry, and become mummified, making it possible for infected limbs to spontaneously break off at the joints (Salvador and Kolla 1). In 1938, two Swiss researchers, Hoffman and Stoll, derived d-lysergic acid diethylamide (Salvador and Kolla 2). After taking LSD the affects lasts about five to eight hours. Two of the alkaloids of ergot have been found to have remarkable properties to reduce the pain of migraine headaches, their names are ergotamine and ergotoxine. The drug has been tried as a treatment for infantile autism, for alcoholism, and to accelerate psychotherapy, but no medical use has been established (Microsoft Encarta 1999). Ergot has also been used to induce abortions.
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