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The primary concern with ergot is that it produces a number of
alkaloids, known as ergot
alkaloids, that are highly toxic to humans and to livestock.
Precise symptoms will depend upon the ratios of the various alkaloids
produced by the infecting strain.
The toxicity of ergot was known to Assyrians and the earliest descriptions
of infected cereals date from these times. Medical texts on cuneiform
tablet from about 600 BC describe a noxious pustule in the ears
of grain. During the period of the Roman Empire, effective grain
husbandry limited outbreaks, but a series of severe outbreaks leading
to large numbers of deaths occurred sporadically in the period between
the fall of the Roman empire and the Rennaissance, although outbreaks
continue to this day. It is thought that the strange behaviors of
women in Salem, Massachussetts, that led to the Salem witch trials
of the 1692, may have resulted to exposure to hallucinogenic ergot
alkaloids.
Ergotism became known as St. Anthony's fire because pilgrimages
to the shrine of St. Anthony lead to the disease being cured. The
shrine is in the Swiss mountains, where conditions do not favor
the growth of the fungus. People travelling through the area would
be eating ergot-free bread and so would recover. However, at low
doses it was found to be therapeutic and sclerotia were often taken
in small quantities to aid childbirth.
The disease was first fully described in 1676 and was finally identified
as a fungus in 1815.
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