Krist Olson got a nasty surprise this fall. For the first time in his farming experience, the Thief River Falls, Minn., farmer was hit with ergot, a fungal disease, in his wheat crop. "Actually, it ...

Ergot is a fungus that can grow on grains such as rye and wheat. Symptoms of ergot poisoning or ergotism vary but include dizziness, convulsions, and psychosis. In the past, midwives and doctors used ...

Ergotism, or ergot poisoning, is when a person or animal eats food that has been contaminated with a fungus called C. purpurea. The fungus is most commonly found in rye, but it can affect other grains ...

When Linnda Caporael began nosing into the Salem witch trials as a college student in the early 1970s, she had no idea that a common grain fungus might be responsible for the terrible events of 1692.

University of Missouri livestock and forage specialists are reporting ergot infestations that can cause major losses in livestock, said MU Extension state specialist in veterinary toxicology and ...

Union County Extension agronomist Darrin Walenta talks to participants in the Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center's Grass Seed Field Day May 19 about a new Ergot Alert Newsletter that ...

The European Commission is to introduce new rules around a type of mycotoxin in certain food products. The limits are for ergot alkaloids in barley, wheat, spelt, rye and oats and processed ...

At the industry-wide meeting on Thursday, May 10, Dr. Steve Jackson, an equine nutrition consultant and owner of Bluegrass Equine Nutrition, and Dr. Jimmy Henning, an extension forage specialist at ...

Ergot alkaloids are a group of headache medicines that include dihydroergotamine (Migranal, Trudhesa, others) and ergotamine (Cafergot, Ergomar, Ergostat, others). These drugs are used only to treat ...

Ergot alkaloids are a diverse group of secondary metabolites produced predominantly by the parasitic fungus Claviceps purpurea. These compounds have long been a subject of scientific inquiry due to ...

So people, as people are wont to do, adapted this knowledge, figuring out ways to tame ergot, essentially, for hallucinatory purposes. And they experimented with other plants, as well. Forbes's David ...