Medieval chicken rot

In the mushroom family, there is a "spoiled child " called the chicken mushroom - Claviceps. It was devastating many people in the middle ages.

Chicken Claviceps in wheat
(Photo: wetterzentrale)

Women are sick children, all dead. At first it was thought to be a critic, through many years of research, the culprit was found. That's the ergot.

Chicken mushroom is a cystic fungus, likes room-borne parasites of wheat and rye, develops into a sclerotia like a very hard, black and brown chicken. When people eat a chicken-infested mushroom, they will get sick. First suffer from limb cramps, muscles; then limbs, breasts, teeth feel numb, and death-related ulcers, very carpet. People call it chicken disease.

Cattle that eat the grasses of the herb-infected herb are also poisoned to death.

By the 18th century, the flour milling industry developed more progressively, it was eliminated chicken spleen, control of chicken-ear fungus. Not only that, it is also possible to find a type of alkuloid in the chicken which promotes the contraction of blood vessels, stimulates paralysis, and produces hemostatic drugs and birth stimulants. And so "spoiled child" mushroom chicken has been improved well.

Claviceps chicken on wheat and some other mushrooms (Photo: swsbm)