# Aconite (Aconitum napellus)

*Wolfsbane, monkshood; Greek *akoniton**

**Known today as.** *Aconitum napellus* and its relatives, of the buttercup family.

Kind: Plant  
Poisoning: Aconitine poisoning (https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/poisons/aconitine)  
Toxic: yes

> **Caution.** Among the deadliest plants of Europe. Do not handle without gloves.

## What does modern science say?

Aconitine disturbs the nerves and the rhythm of the heart; a few milligrams can kill, and it can pass through the skin.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **aconitine**: a diterpenoid alkaloid
- **mesaconitine**: 
- **hypaconitine**: 

**Mechanism.** Aconitine holds open the voltage-gated sodium channels of nerve and heart muscle.

**Dose.** About 2 mg of aconitine, or a gram of the root; absorbed through the skin.

**Standing.** No Western medicinal use. Processed aconite (*fuzi*) remains in Chinese medicine, with poisonings each year.

## What lore surrounds it?

The poison of sorceresses in the classical imagination, and, in the witches’ ointments of later writers, a companion to the nightshades.

Aconite was said to have sprung from the saliva of Cerberus where it dripped on the hill of Aconitus as Hercules dragged the hound up from the underworld, and Hecate, goddess of witchcraft and the crossroads, gathered it there, binding the plant to her cult for good. Later folklore held that it could turn a man into a werewolf and, in other tellings, cure him of it. It appears in recorded witches’ ointment recipes beside soot, fern, and wild celery.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Ovid.** In the *Metamorphoses* aconite springs from the foam of Cerberus, dragged up from the underworld by Hercules, and Medea mixes it in the cup for Theseus.

**Its names.** Wolfsbane, for its use to poison baits for wolves; monkshood, for the shape of its flower.

## Sources

- Ovid, *Metamorphoses* VII.
- Theophrastus, *Enquiry into Plants*.
- Icy Sedgwick, on the folklore of aconite.
- Chan, T. Y. K. (2009). *Clinical Toxicology* 47.

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*Aconite.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-09-25. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/aconite

Historical description, not medical advice.