# Meadow saffron (Colchicum autumnale)

**Colchicum*; *hermodactyl**

**Known today as.** *Colchicum autumnale*.

Kind: Plant  
Poisoning: Gastrointestinal irritants (https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/poisons/gastrointestinal)  
Deadly: yes

> **Deadly.** Deadly; mistaken for wild garlic.

## What was it used for?

The medieval hermodactyl, against gout; a notorious poison.

## What does modern science say?

Colchicine is still prescribed for gout, in small doses, and is deadly in larger ones.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **colchicine**: 

**Mechanism.** Colchicine binds tubulin and stops the dividing cell, in the gut lining and the marrow first.

**Dose.** About 0.8 mg per kilogram; a handful of the corm.

**Standing.** Colchicine is a licensed drug for gout and familial Mediterranean fever, with a narrow margin.

## What lore surrounds it?

Thiselton-Dyer's proverb for actions that turn out otherwise than expected, “You set saffron and there came up wolfsbane,” and the Exeter farmer's praise of a farm that “he'd let so dear as saffron,” belong to the true saffron; the meadow saffron borrowed the name and none of the luck.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Dioscorides.** Warns that it kills as poisonous mushrooms do, by choking.

**Anton von Störck.** The Viennese physician tested it carefully and published on it in 1763.

## Sources

- Dioscorides, *De materia medica*.
- Störck, A. von (1763), his treatise on the root of meadow saffron.
- Thiselton-Dyer, T. F. (1889). *The Folk-lore of Plants*. Project Gutenberg #10118.
- Goldfrank’s *Toxicologic Emergencies*, 11th ed. (2019).

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*Meadow saffron.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-01. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/meadow-saffron

Historical description, not medical advice.