Urginea

History. For centuries man has recognized that rodent pests destroy his habitat, consume his food, and cause the spread of virulent diseases. Throughout the same centuries man has sought to eliminate these pests with a variety of poisons such as strychnine, arsenious oxide, and red squill - a steroidal glycoside extracted from the bulb of a lily-like plant, Urginea maritima. 

Miyakado, M., Kato, T., Ohno, N. and Koshimuzi, K. 1975. Alkaloids of Urginea altissima and their antimicrobial activity against Phytophthora capsid. Phytochemistry, 14 2717. 

Proscillaridin A Scilla [Urginea) maritima (Liliaceae) JNa+, K+-ATPase [cardiotonic,... 

Scills Syrupus (syrup of squills) From the sea onion (Urginea martima), used as an expectorant, diuretic, and emetic purgative. Its most common use was in the treatment of chronic bronchitis. Beasley gives more than thirty different prescriptions. 

In a Turkish case, the ingestion of two bulbs or Urginea maritima as a folk remedy for arthritic pains was sufficient to result in fatal poisoning (27). 

Urginea (Scilla) maritima Squill Proscillaridin Squill was a common remedy for dropsy in ancient times and up to the 19th century... 

Tuncok Y, Kozan O, Cavdar C, Guven H, Fowler J. Urginea maritima (squill) toxicity. J Toxicol Clin Toxicol 1995 33(l) 83-6. 

Fig. 38.—Various forms of calcium oxalate crystals. A, styloids from the bark of QuiUaja saponaria B, rosette aggregate from rhizome of Rheum officinale C, raphide from the bulb of Urginea maritima D. crystal fiber as seen in longitudinal section in either the xylem or phloem regions of Glycyrrhiza E, microcrystals (crystal sand) isolated from the parenchyma of Belladonna root F, monoclinic prisms and G, twin-crystals from leaves of Hyoscyamus niger. All highly magnified.

Urginea delagoensis Bak. [mahlanganisa, sea squill] (Hyacinthaceae) bulb decoction is used for bone fractures and also as a laxative (11,26). 

Schon fruh wurde vermutet, daB Moly als Meerzwiebel Anmerkung 110 [Urginea maritima (L.) BAKER syn. Scilla maritima L.] zu deuten sei (RAHNER 1957) ... 

The cardiac glycosides have up to now been isolated from a limited number of plant families Scrophuhridceae (Digitalis lanata), Apocynaceae (Strophanthus gratus, Nerium oleander), Hyacinthaceae (Urginea mar-itima), Convallariaceae (Convallaria majalis), and Ranunculaceae (Adonis vernalis). 

Toxic principles are quite common in the family Liliaceae. The better knovm poisonous genera include Rhodea of the subtribe Aspidistrinae, Urginea, Scilla, Muscari, Camassia, and Omithogalum of the subfamily... 

Squill The cut and dried fleshy inner scales of the white variety of the bulb Urginea scllla, or the younger bulbs of U. indlca. It Is used as an expectorant, cardiac stimulant and diuretic. 

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