Seed morphology and toxic properties of Heliotropium lasiocarpum

BORAGINACEAE FAMILY Fruitlets are obovate, oval in cross-section. Apex is rounded, base is slightly elongated. Fruit scar is slightly protruding, white. Surface is tuberculate, with short dense pubescence, matte. Color is brownish-greenish, greenish-brown. Length 1.25–1.75 mm, width and thickness 0.75–1 mm. It infests irrigated crops of wheat, cotton, and alfalfa. Distribution: European part (southern regions), Crimea, Caucasus, Western Siberia, Central Asia. Toxic properties. The above-ground part (including seeds) of heliotropes is poisonous. Toxicity is due to hepatotropic alkaloids heliotrine, lasiocarpine, etc. Under the influence of alkaloids, toxic hepatitis develops; the liver decreases in size, acquires a dense consistency, and a yellow-brown color. The cause of poisoning is the contamination of cereal crops with heliotrope seeds, especially in years with a late spring, when (due to delays) the ripening periods of cereals and heliotrope coincide. Symptoms of heliotrope toxicosis are characterized by: pre-ascitic (acute) period, ascitic, and post-ascitic. In the acute period, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and bloating, diarrhea, and liver enlargement occur. After 8–15 days, in the absence of treatment, an ascitic period may develop: abdominal enlargement due to ascites, liver shrinkage, oliguria, weakness, emaciation, and persistent diarrhea. In the post-ascitic period, progressive liver failure can lead to the development of hepatic coma (liver atrophy).

Other species. Among the poisonous representatives of the genus are: H. ellipticum (south of the European part of the Russian Federation, Caucasus, Central Asia), H. lasiocarpum (Central Asia, Caucasus), H. supinum (Transcaucasia, Central Asia), H. olgae (Central Asia), H. suaveolens, and H. europaeum (south of the European part of the Russian Federation).