Colchicum is highly toxic, so why can it relieve gout?

The seven-day holiday is here, and most people are very happy, but there are quite a few unhappy people too, such as gout patients, who face fine wine and delicious food while suffering both physically and mentally. The most commonly used drug for treating gout iscolchicine, and from its name you can guess that this drug was first extracted from Colchicum autumnale.

Colchicum autumnale. Photo: M. Martin Vicente / flickr

The distinctive Colchicum

In the old classification system, Colchicum was a genus in the Liliaceae family. At that time, the Liliaceae family was like a big basket into which everything was thrown. Later, botanists finally figured out thatthe old Liliaceaespecies should actually belong to multiple different groups, so they split up the Liliaceae family. Now, the genus Colchicum, together with its twenty-some relatives, has established aColchicaceaefamily. Most plants in this family, like Colchicum, are beautiful in appearance buthighly toxic。

Colchicum speciosum, with six tepals and six stamens - no wonder it was classified in the Liliaceae in the old classification system. Photo: Yu Tianyi

Colchicum'sflowers and leaves appear at different times, and actually there are many plants with similar habits, such as winter jasmine, Lycoris, and Paulownia tomentosa. But few are as distinctive as Colchicum. Colchicum has an alias in English called "naked ladies," which literally means naked women, describing its flowers - when it blooms, there is truly only flowers above ground, with no stems, no leaves, not even a flower stalk.

Wild Colchicum on a hillside in Leysin, Switzerland. Photo: Desert Porcupine

It blooms without even growing roots

Colchicum is native to low and mid-altitude grassland environments in Europe. Its underground part is an oval corm of varying sizes - wild types are a bit smaller than a chicken egg, while horticultural varieties can be bigger than an adult's fist. The corm itself iswhite, with a layer ofbrownish-yellowdry skin on the outside.

Corms of horticultural Colchicum at a flower show. Photo: Yu Tianyi

When it is dormant in summer, if you peel off the outer skin of the Colchicum corm, you can see asmall bud. This bud is both this autumn's flower and next spring's new corm.

Peeling off the corm's outer skin. Photo: Desert Porcupine

Every yearin autumn, increasingly lower temperatures and gradually shortening daylight will break Colchicum's dormancy. The nutrients stored in the old corm will continuously be delivered to the new bud, and before long, the new bud will sprout from the soil and bloom with pink-purple flowers, standing out conspicuously amid the surrounding green grass.

A blooming C. x agrippinum, which does not grow leaves when flowering. Photo: Yu Tianyi

Colchicum's flowers not only come before its leaves,they even grow before its roots. When it first blooms, the nutrients and water it consumes come almost entirely from the corm, with no need for roots to provide them. The root system will grow a bit later.

True narcissus can be grown without soil, simply placed in water, but Colchicum does not even need water. After buying it, you canjust put it anywhereand still see it bloom. Of course, after flowering it still needs to be planted in time, otherwise there will be nothing to see next year. Colchicum is still an expensive flower, and if you throw it away after one bloom, it will do considerable damage to your wallet.

It can bloom even just left like this. Photo: bakker.com

The fruit and leaves emerge from the ground together

Colchicum has a long flowering period, lasting more than a month from start to finish. After the flowering period, the leaves emerge from the surface. They look plump and tender, but they simply cannot be eaten.The fruit is also brought above ground by the leaves. Colchicum's ovary is located at the base of the underground corm and does not see the light of day even when flowering. After pollination, the ovary develops into fruit underground, and only when the leaves have grown to a certain height will it come out along with them.

Colchicum leaves. Photo: Dr. Nachtigaller / wiki commons

Colchicum capsule. Photo: BerndH / wiki commons

After the leaves emerge, they busily carry out photosynthesis to produce and store nutrients. At this time, the old corm gradually shrinks, and the underground part of the new bud slowly develops into a new generation of corm,becoming dormant next summer, fulfilling the role of its predecessor by nourishing the next generation's new bud.

Some Colchicum also grow leaves when flowering, such as this C. parlatoris. Photo: Yu Tianyi

What colchicine does

Colchicum is rich in colchicine, which is an alkaloid, also calledcolchicine. Its own toxicity is not strong, but once ingested it oxidizes intothe highly toxic oxycolchicine. Colchicine's mechanism of action is to inhibit the polymerization of tubulin in cells, thereby interfering with all life activities involving microtubules.Microtubulesare very important in cells. Once interfered with, the cell's work becomes disordered, and the person becomes poisoned. Generally, an adult taking 6-7 mg of colchicine orally may die. If you accidentally eat one Colchicum corm, you will need emergency treatment. It is called emergency treatment, but actually it only reduces tissue damage, because there is still no specific antidote for colchicine poisoning.

The colchicine that gout patients take now is not a natural product, but one whose molecular structure has been modified andwhose toxicity has been reduced, so it is not so easy to die from taking it. But why can it treat gout? This must start with the mechanism of gout.

The pain of gout is an inflammatory response caused by too much uric acid in the blood forming crystals that deposit in the joints. And this inflammatory response is actuallyneutrophils(the white blood cells with white heads in "Cells at Work!") trying to clear away the uric acid.

In the human body, (neutro)phils account for 60%-70% of the total number of white blood cells. Image: "Cells at Work!" / Akane Shimizu / Kodansha? ANIPLEX? davidproduction

Neutrophils need microtubules to move around in the body.Colchicine inhibits microtubule polymerization, thereby blocking the mobility of neutrophils. If they cannot reach the joints, the joints will not become inflamed. Of course, the uric acid crystals, the real culprit, are actually still there; it just does not hurt anymore.

"Gout" by British satirical cartoonist James Gillray. Daily diet and genetic factors are causes of it. Colchicine can relieve symptoms, but patients still need to adjust their diet. Image: James Gillray (1799) / wiki commons

Colchicine's ability to inhibit microtubules has also made it a frequent guest in breeding experiments. High school biology textbooks already teach that colchicine can induce chromosome doubling by inhibiting spindle formation, cultivatingseedless watermelonwhen it is indispensable. This is because the spindle is actually also composed of microtubules, so it is interfered with by colchicine. In addition to inducing polyploids, colchicine can also cause gene mutations, and it is often used in mutation breeding as well.

The cultivation of triploid seedless watermelon - you have surely seen this diagram in your high school biology textbook. Image: slidesplayer.com

Inedible Colchicum and edible...

Colchicum contains colchicine throughout the whole plant, so it definitely cannot be eaten, but its flowers and leaves resemble two edible plants. Its flower shape and flowering habits are very similar to those of the Iridaceaesaffron crocusCrocus sativus, whose stamen filaments are an edible spice and dye. The most obvious difference between Colchicum and saffron crocus in flower appearance is precisely the stamens:Colchicum has six, saffron crocus has three。

Saffron crocus has three stamens. Photo: Desert Porcupine

Colchicum's leaves look quite similar toramsonsAllium ursinum. Ramsons taste somewhat like chives and are a wild vegetable in Europe. Ramsons' leaves are flat. When they first sprout, they not only look like Colchicum, but also like lily of the valley, and lily of the valley is also toxic.

Ramsons. Photo: wikipedia

So,when in the wild, you must control your mouth, and absolutely must not eat everything. Losing your life for a bite to eat (which may not even taste good) is really not worth it.

Finally, let us look at some beautiful Colchicum. Thanks to Tianyi for the beautiful photos sent from the UK. Remember, these cannot be eaten:

Colchicum cultivar "Waterlily" C. "Waterlily". Photo: Yu Tianyi

Colchicum variegatum. Photo: Yu Tianyi

Colchicum lusitanum. Photo: Yu Tianyi

This article is the 275th article in the fourth year of Species Calendar, from Species Calendar author @Desert Porcupine.

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