# Squill (Drimia maritima)

**Scilla**

**Known today as.** Sea squill, *Drimia maritima* and its close relatives, large bulbs of the Mediterranean coasts.

Kind: Plant  
Poisoning: Cardiac glycoside poisoning (https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/poisons/cardiac-glycoside)

## What did Canale use it for?

As oxymel in vomits; placed above the door, so that the inhabitants “cannot be bewitched” (chs. 5, 10).

## What does modern science say?

An emetic in large doses and an expectorant; its cardiac glycosides made it a heart drug, and it was later a rat poison. Hanging a squill over the door is an ancient custom: Pliny, citing Pythagoras, says it shuts out evil spells. It has no protective effect.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **proscillaridin A**: 
- **scillaren A**: 

**Mechanism.** The bufadienolide glycosides act on the heart as digitalis does, and were used for heart failure into the 1960s; the red squill’s scilliroside is a rat poison that rats, which cannot vomit, cannot survive.

**Dose.** As the digitalis glycosides; a few grams of the bulb.

**Standing.** Proscillaridin survived as a drug in Germany until recently; squill remains in a few cough mixtures at small doses.

## What lore surrounds it?

Hung above the door against enchantment, as Canale also directs: the bulb was believed to keep harm from the threshold.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Dioscorides.** Describes squill vinegar and squill wine, and the roasting of the bulb.

## Sources

- Nelson, L. S., et al. (2007). *Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants*.

---

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

Historical description, not medical advice.