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Substance Abuse during Pregnancy
Published in “Bert” Bertis Britt Little, Drugs and Pregnancy, 2022
Illegally produced LSD may contain lysergic acid with no amination, and can cause peripheral neuropathy, gangrene, and necrosis, resembling toxic shock syndrome. Toxic human exposures to lysergic acid are rare. Peripheral neuropathy, gangrene, and necrosis were observed among cattle and sheep that consumed wheat grain infected with the fungus Claviceps pupurea, which produces lysergic acid. LSD produced illegally has no quality control or routine assurance measures are taken to assure LSD purity, as is the case with most illegal drugs,
Ergot Alkaloids
Published in Dongyou Liu, Handbook of Foodborne Diseases, 2018
The teleomorphic genus Claviceps comprises about 50 species, the most predominant of which are Claviceps purpurea (purple ergot or rye ergot fungus; host plants: rye, wheat, barley, millet, oats, and grasses), Claviceps africana (sorghum ergot; synonym: Commiphora africana; host plant: sorghum), Claviceps paspali (paspalum ergot; host plant: paspalum), and Claviceps fusiformis (host plant: pearl millet). As the cause of St. Anthony's fire, C. purpurea (the term purpurea reflects this fungus’ ability to replace kernels in grain with hard purplish ergot bodies or sclerotia containing alkaloids) is separated into three races or varieties (G1 affecting land grasses of open meadows and fields; G2 affecting grasses from moist, forest, and mountain habitats; G3 or C. purpurea var. spartinae affecting salt marsh grasses) [1,6].
E
Published in Anton Sebastian, A Dictionary of the History of Medicine, 2018
Ergotism [Old French: argot, cock spur] It was known as an obstetric remedy to the Chinese around 1000 BC. The use of barley in many ancient remedies suggests that the ergot fungus was unknowingly used by the ancients in childbirth and other conditions. The poisonous properties of molds growing on grain were described by Galen (129–200) who was probably the first physician to recognize the fungus. A reference to it in midwifery was made by Adam Lonicer or Lornicerus, a German botanist, in 1582. Casper Bauhin (1560–1624) described and illustrated the fungus. Epidemics of ergot poisoning due to infected rye or barley have been recorded since the Middle Ages. The first recorded outbreak occurred in France, at Limoges in AD 591. The symptoms of intense irritation and burning which led to dancing were interpreted as demonic possession. In 1085 Pope Urban II designated St Anthony as the saint against the disease and it came to be known as ignus sacer (holy fire) or St Anthony’s fire. The first suggestion that it was due to contamination of rye by biological agents was made by the Parisian herbal physician Denis Dodart in 1676. In his letter to the Royal Academy of Sciences Paris, he pointed out that degenerating rye contained an external agent. One of the last outbreaks in England occurred in Manchester in 1927. The fungus was named Claviceps purpurea.
Mycotoxins and mycotoxigenic fungi in aquaculture and seafood: a review and new perspective
Published in Toxin Reviews, 2022
Adel Mirza Alizadeh, Amin Mousavi Khaneghah, Hedayat Hosseini
Given the significant volume of per capita production and consumption of edible fish in the world, especially in areas where the seafood is a significant diet, monitoring of toxic pollutants such as natural toxins, potentially toxic elements, pesticides, toxins substances from industrial and mining activities, as well as mycotoxins (through contamination of fish feed with mycotoxigenic fungi) in these aquatic products seems necessary. Since cereals and grain-based processed products are the main components of farmed fish feed, it is obligatory to measure mycotoxins in these products by local government agencies (Manning and Abbas 2012). Various species of fungal genera including Aspergillus (A.) sp., Alternaria (Al.) sp., Fusarium (F.) sp., Mucor (M.) sp., Penicillium (P.) sp., Cladosporium (Cl.) sp., and Claviceps (C.) sp. are the most susceptible to produce mycotoxins in fish feed (Marijani et al. 2019; Mirza Alizadeh et al. 2021b). However, the fish feed ingredients are often contaminated with types of mycotoxins include Aflatoxins (AFs), Trichothecenes (TCs), Ochratoxins (OTs), Enniatins (ENs), Fumonisins (FBs), Zearalenone (ZEA), and Ergot alkaloids (Peivasteh-Roudsari et al. 2021). The primary source of exposure to these toxic substances in marine and farmed fish, as well as people, can be contaminated fish feed.
Biosensors for the detection of mycotoxins
Published in Toxin Reviews, 2022
Akansha Shrivastava, Rakesh Kumar Sharma
At present, more than 450 mycotoxins are known whereas attention is mainly focused on carcinogenic and neurotoxic metabolites. The source of human exposure to mycotoxins is through the consumption of plant-derived food contaminated with mycotoxins and its metabolites in animal products such as meats, eggs, etc. Health concerning mycotoxins include aflatoxins, ochratoxins, trichothecenes, ZEN, fumonisins, tremorgenic toxins, and ergot alkaloids (Marin et al. 2013). Mycotoxigenic fungi majorly belong to genera such as Aspergillus sp., Alternaria sp., Claviceps sp., Fusarium sp., Penicillium sp., and Stachybotrys sp. A significant level of contamination may occur in coffee/roasted coffee, fruit juices, spices, dried fruits, beans, beer, bakery products, poultry meat, pork sausages, wine, and related products.
Spatial memory deficits initiated by agroclavine injection or olfactory bulbectomy in rats are characterized by different levels of long-term potentiation expression in the hippocampus
Published in International Journal of Neuroscience, 2020
Vasily Vorobyov, Natalia Medvinskaya, Alexander Deev, Frank Sengpiel, Natalia Bobkova, Sergey Lunin
At the age of 14 months, learning/memory abilities of rats were tested with the Morris water paradigm (for details, see [15]). On the next day after training session, sham-operated rats were randomly divided on three groups. One of them was used as a control for OBX-rats (‘ShX’ group, N = 7). In another group (‘ShAg’, N = 5), the animals were treated with agroclavine (50 µg/kg, i.p.), whereas all others (‘ShVh’ group, N = 7) and from ShX and OBX groups were injected with the vehicle (0.3 ml, i.p.). We used agroclavine synthesized microbiologically by strain Claviceps sp. ВКМ F-2609 [16]. The injections were performed one hour before testing procedure. Total time spent in each quadrant and the number of inward crossings of its borders was estimated by use a digital camera (Logitech QuickCam 3000, 800 × 600 pixels, 15 fps) and custom-developed video tracking software.