Aethusa cynapium

Aethusa cynapium (fool's parsley, fool's cicely, or poison parsley) is an annual (rarely biennial) herb in the flowering plant family Apiaceae, native to Europe, western Asia, and northwest Africa. It is the only member of the genus Aethusa. It is related to hemlock and water-dropwort, and like them it is poisonous,^[1] though less so than hemlock. It has been introduced into many other parts of the world and is a common weed in cultivated ground.^[2]

Aethusa cynapium
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Apiales
Family:	Apiaceae
Subfamily:	Apioideae
Tribe:	Selineae
Genus:	Aethusa L.
Species:	A. cynapium
Binomial name
Aethusa cynapium L.

Description

Inflorescence of fool's parsley

It has a fusiform root and a smooth hollow branched stem growing to about 80 cm (31 in) high, with much divided (ternately pinnate) smooth leaves with an unpleasant smell, and small compound umbels of small irregular white flowers.^[2]

Chemical composition, toxicity and medical uses

A. cynapium is poisonous when fresh, but safe if dried. A. cynapium's toxic effects are caused at least in part by cynopine, which resembles coniine in its physical and chemical characters as well as physiological actions. The whole plant is toxic with this alkaloid. Toxins like cynopine are destroyed by drying. A. cynapium also contains trideca-7,9-11-trienoic acid, aethusin, aethusanol A, aethusanol B, as well as flavone glycosides such as rutoside, narcissine, and ascorbic acid.^[3][4][5]

The parts of A. cynapium that grow above the ground are sometimes used to make medicine. The plants has been used in traditional medicine to treat complaints in children, infantile cholera, summer diarrhea, convulsions, mental tension, sleep disorders, delirium, and as stomachic. A. cynapium has actually been shown to cause antianxiety effects in mice because it contains trideca-7,9,11-trienoic acid.^[3][4][5]

Poisoning from A. cynapium results in symptoms of heat in the mouth and throat. A post-mortem examination has shown redness of the membrane lining the gullet and windpipe, along with symptoms of slight congestion within the duodenum and stomach. Some toxins are destroyed by drying, and indeed, hay containing the plant is not poisonous.^[4]

References

1. Clapham, Tutin, & Warburg: Flora of the British Isles, 2nd edition, page 524
2.  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Fool's Parsley". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 616.
3. Dwivedi, H., Bhardwaj, M., & Kumar, G. (2021). A Comprehensive Study of Poisonous Plants of Family Apiaceae. In Apiaceae: Ecology, Uses and Toxicity (pp. 1–14). Nova Publisher, New York.
4. "Fool's Parsley - Uses, Side Effects, and More". WebMD. Retrieved 2025-01-03.
5. Shri, Richa; Bhutani, K.K.; Sharma, Anupam (2010). "A new anxiolytic fatty acid from Aethusa cynapium". Fitoterapia. 81 (5): 337–340. doi:10.1016/j.fitote.2010.05.003.

External links

• Media related to Aethusa cynapium at Wikimedia Commons
• Parsley, Fool's