DISEASES OF SMALL GRAINS - ERGOT

After infection, the ergot fungus produces sweet, sticky, spore-filled masses that attract insects (see arrows). This stage is called the honeydew stage. The sticky spores adhere to the feet of the insects and are transported to healthy heads as the insects move from plant to plant. Eventually the honeydew stage subsides and infected ovaries begin to swell and darken, forming the sclerotia characteristic of the disease.

Ergot has had a large impact on human history, due to the toxic compounds (called ergosamines) that are produced in sclerotia and which, when ingested, can lead to hallucinations, loss of blood circulation, organ failure, abortion, and death.

• During the Middle Ages, ergot-contaminated rye was occasionally used to make bread. Toxins in the bread from the ergot led to hallucinations, gangrene and death. This affliction was called St. Anthony’s fire, after an order of Catholic monks who built hospitals to treat the disease.
• Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo is also thought to be partially due to ergot. As Napoleon’s army invaded Russia, the soldiers began to live off the land, and are thought to have collected ergot-infected grains. A substantial number of Napoleon’s soldiers apparently died from consumption of the contaminated grain.
• Finally, US historians have hypothesized that the “visions” that led to the Salem witch trials may have been to due, in part, to consumption of bread contaminated with low levels of ergot.

Today, low doses of purified toxins from ergot infected grains are used induce labor in pregnant women.