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Aethusa cynapium
Also called Fools parsley, Poison Parsley
Fool's parsley is a weedy annual (rarely biennial) herb in the carrot family, native to Europe, western Asia and northwest Africa, and a common weed of cultivated ground. It is grown only as a weed, not as a garden plant, and is best removed before it sets seed.
Aethusa cynapium (fool's parsley, fool's cicely, or poison parsley) is an annual (rarely biennial) herb in the flowering plant family Apiaceae, native to Europe, western Asia, and northwest Africa. It is the only member of the genus Aethusa. It is related to hemlock and water-dropwort, and like them it is poisonous, though less so than hemlock. It has been introduced into many other parts of the world and is a common weed in cultivated ground.
A. cynapium is poisonous when fresh, but safe if dried. A. cynapium's toxic effects are caused at least in part by cynopine, which resembles coniine in its physical and chemical characters as well as physiological actions. The whole plant is toxic with this alkaloid. Toxins like cynopine are destroyed by drying. A. cynapium also contains trideca-7,9,11-trienoic acid, aethusin, aethusanol A, aethusanol B, as well as flavone glycosides such as rutoside, narcissine, and ascorbic acid.
The parts of A. cynapium that grow above the ground are sometimes used to make medicine. The plants has been used in traditional medicine to treat complaints in children, infantile cholera, summer diarrhea, convulsions, mental tension, sleep disorders, delirium, and as stomachic. A. cynapium has actually been shown to cause antianxiety effects in mice because it contains trideca-7,9,11-trienoic acid.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Aethusa cynapium by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
