Ergot

In the set of adaptogenic drugs we can also insert SEGAL CORNUTA, with expression also linked to homeopathy.

The ergot is a drug characterized by a biological form of resistance of a fungus, known as Clavicex purpurea . This fungus infests the cultivation of grasses, in particular rye, but not only; it attacks the inflorescences, in particular the female genital apparatus of the grasses and, when the spores arrive on the inflorescence, they develop the vegetative part, making the hyphae grow; these hyphae completely envelop the single flower, produce a sugary substance called "honeydew" and at the same time develop vegetative spores of fungus dissemination, without sexual reproduction. At this point the sugary secretions attract insects, which arrive and feed on the honeydew, and then they go away disseminating the vegetative spores, then the infection. All this happens when the fungus develops vegetatively and jointly with the ontogenetic development of the graminaceous plant; in fact, the fungus must develop and grow when the flowering phase begins. The plant then dries to get to winter and also the fungus prepares to resist the winter period, sclerotizing all the part of the hyphae that enveloped the inflorescence; this sclerosis corresponds to a loss of water and therefore the fungus enters a phase of quiescence. From here, it is formed as a croissant of a size of about 2-3 cm maximum, with a slightly curved cylindrical shape; this croissant falls to the ground, winter passes and in the spring the fungus begins to germinate through meiosis, ie the formation of gametes; then there is sexual reproduction, with the formation of new generation spores which will infest the following year's harvest. The rye-horned drug is constituted precisely by the phase of wintering of the fungus, that is by the sclerotized croissant called precisely "sclerotium". The drug is characterized by alkaloids, such as ergometrine and ergotoxin, which are important from a pharmaceutical standpoint, because they have anti-haemorrhagic, antineuralgic and anti-migraine properties.

The use of ergot in the herbalist field concerns the homeopathic sphere.