Claviceps purpurea,

(Fries) Tulasne.

The carefully dried sclerotium, replacing the grain of rye, Secale cereale, with not more than 5 p. c. of seeds, fruits, foreign matter.

Habitat: Eastern countries, Russia; cultivated in Spain, Germany, France.

Syn. Ergot of Rye, Spurred Rye, Cockspur Rye, Smut of Rye, Mother of Rye, Hornseed, Secale Clavatum, Mater Secalis, Clavus Secalinus; Fr. Ergot de Seigle, Seigle Ergote (noir), B16 Cornu; Ger. Secale cornutum, Mutterkorn, Zapfen-, Hunger-korn.

Er'go-ta. L. fr. Fr. ergot, argot, a spur - i. e., its spur shape.

Clav'i-ceps. L. clava, a club - i. e., shape of the mycelium or sclerotium.

Pur-pu're-a. L. purpureas, purple colored - i. e., the purple claviceps - color of the sclerotium.

Scle-ro'ti-um. L. fr. Gr.

hard - i. e., a hard body formed by certain fungi.

Se-ca'le. L. secare, to cut, or Celtic, sega, a sickle - i. e., grain curved like a sickle, or the grain has to be cut down.

Ce-re-a'le. L. cerealis, cultivated grain.

Plant. - Rye: culm 1.5-2 M. (5-0°) high; leaves .25-.5 M. (10-20') long, upper surface rough; spike 10-15 Cm. (4-6') long, 2-sided, 2-flowered spikelet, June; fruit July; seed (grain) oblong, grooved on upper side, hairy at summit, brownish. Sclerotium (ergot), cylindraceous, obscurely 3-angled, fusiform, obtuse, somewhat curved, 1-4.5 Cm. (2/5-1 4/5') long, 3-5 Mm. (1/8-1/5') thick, purplish-black, longitudinally furrowed; fracture short, pinkish; odor peculiar, disagreeable, free from mustiness; taste oily, disagreeable. Powder, grayish-brown: microscopically - chiefly fragments of false parenchyma of compacted hyphae, few of outer layer of the sclerotium; mounts in hydrated chloral T. S. or sulphuric acid show many globules of fixed oil and yellowish, reddish fragments. Tests: 1. Bruise, add hot water - no ammoniacal or rancid odor. 2. Shake 1 Gm. + water (20) + 1 drop of hydrochloric acid, make 4 Ml. (Cc.) alkaline with ammonia water, shake out with 10 Ml. (Cc.) of ether; underlay 5 Ml. (Cc.) of this ethereal solution with 2 Ml. (Cc.) of sulphuric acid - blue ring at zone of contact. Ergot that breaks with a sharp snap, devoid of pinkish fracture, hard, brittle between the teeth, odorless and tasteless, should be rejected. Should be dried at 70° C, (158° F.) before storing, and kept dark, in tightly-closed containers, adding occasionally a few drops of chloroform or carbon tetrachloride to prevent insect attack; usually unfit for use after a year. Solvent: diluted alcohol. Dose, gr. 15-60 (1-4 Gm.).

Commercial. - Rye is to Russia what corn is to America, its bread approximating nearer that of wheat than any other grain. The origin of the sclerotium is the biennial thal-lophyte (fungus) Claviceps purpurea, parasitic during moist seasons on the ovary of grains, grasses, sedges - Carex, Cyperus species, etc. (that of rye alone being collected for medicine), - the development having three stages: 1, mycelial - when blooming a few ovaries in some grain heads become covered with sweet, yellow mucus, honey-dew of rye, whose disagreeable odor repels bees, but attracts ants, beetles, and flies - the once supposed cause of the diseased grain, but now known only to aid its dissemination and thereby the spreading of the disease; the filamentous cells (hyphae), collectively forming the mycelium, spread over the lower portion of the ovary and cause decomposition of ovarian tissue, production of honey-dew (sugar), and innumerable reproductive bodies (conidia) imbedded therein; 2, sclerotial - when this conidial formation is at its height the mycelium ceases its superficial growth, presses into the ovary and begins to form a denser tissue at its base and central portion, and, growing upward, ruptures it and develops into a purplish-black, horn-like body, sclerotium (official ergot) - the dormant or resting form of the fungus; 3, thalloidic - when in the following spring ergot sprouts in many heads (stromata), consuming its fixed oil and other constituents, and becoming shriveled and worthless; have formed upon the head's surface spherical-topped excrescences, size of small pin's head, containing the orifices of flask-shaped cavities (conceptacles, perithecia) from whose base many cells (spore-sacs, asci) arise, each containing 8 filiform spores formed synchronous with rye flowers, so that the two (spores, flowers) acting together develop again the spha-celia (sclerotium), hence the necessity of using fresh ergot in medicine, at the end of the second stage, prior to the beginning of the third.

Fig. 4. - Ergotized rye.

Fig. 5. - Ergot, with fruit heads.

Fig. 6. - Longitudinal section of fruiting head, showing conceptacles.

Fig. 7. - Ergota.

Ergot must be dried (too much causing injury, too little mouldiness) and stored (very dry, in well-stoppered bottles) with great care, as the fixed oil soon inclines to become rancid, and a mite ofttimes will attack it, in either case rendering the product worthless. This deterioration may be prevented largely by either (1) deoleation - extracting fixed oil with ether or petroleum benzin, drying, (2) adding occasionally a few drops of chloroform to the closed container, (3) suspending in the container a tube of potassium sulphate saturated with formaldehyde, (4) keeping over unslaked lime, (5) coating with ethereal solution of Tolu or (6) mixing powdered drug with benzoin (5 p. c.); in any event only the preservation of the sclerotium (entire) can be relied upon. There are three varieties: 1, Spanish, largest, finest-looking, highest-priced, bluest; 2, Russian, reddish-purple, considered most active; 3, German, reddish-purple.