Loco weed plant

The first sources of swainsonine were the fiongus Rhizoctonia leguminicula and the loco-weed plants but the increasing interest in its biological activity lead to the search of alternative sources of this alkaloid. 

Dextrorotatory inositol occurs in various plants as its monomethyl ether, pinitol, which was first mentioned by Berthelot as a constituent of the exudate of Pinus lamhertiana Dougl. More recently it has been discovered in the heartwood of the redwood Sequoia sempervirensy and in two varieties of the loco weed, Astragalus earlei and Oxytropis lambertii. 

Because of the large economic losses attributed to loco-weed poisoning, several studies have been conducted to define conditions of maximal contact of bovines and ovines without poisoning [44-50], and to detect the presence of swainsonine in an Australian plant, which produces... 

D-Inositol (d-inositol, jS-inositol, matezodambose), m.p. 247-248 , Hd + 65 (H2O), occurs as a monomethyl ether, pinitol, m.p. 186 , Md + 65.5 (H2O), in many plants, particularly conifers (s). The heartwood of the sugar pine, Pinus lambertiana Dough, averages 4% by weight (range, 1.3-9.5%) of pinitol (9). Other sources are the red spruce Picea rubra) (10), redwood Sequoia sempervirens) (11), and the loco weed (1 ). Pinitol is sweet, very soluble in water, and stable in dilute acids and... 

No doubt, men watched their livestock get sick or die after eating certain plants. Stories of the Old West have made loco-weeds famous because of their effects on animals. When eaten by dairy cows, White snakeroot transfers its poisonous alcohol, tremetol, to their milk. During the 19th century, this created the outbreaks of milk sickness in the Appalachians and the Midwest, and resulted in the loss of numerous lives. 

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