NARTHECIACEAE

(Bog Asphodel family)

• Medicinal / Folk-medicinal aspects: •
• Adverse effects: •
• Veterinary aspects: One species in this small family is recognised as the cause of secondary (hepatogenous) photosensitisation, mostly in lambs, in the British Isles and Western Europe. •

This is a small family comprising 37 species in 5 genera. The principal genera are Aletris L. [25 spp.] and Narthecium Huds. [8 spp.].^a Most were traditionally treated as belonging to the family Liliaceae (Willis 1973), and more recently to the Melanthiaceae (Mabberley 1997), before being moved into the family Nartheciaceae (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group 2003).

Found growing naturally in Western Europe, the bog asphodel, Narthecium ossifragum (L.) Huds. is the only species likely to be found in cultivation as a garden ornamental (Hunt 1968/70).

^a https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:326442-2; accessed October 2025

Aletris pauciflora (Klotzsch) Hand.-Mazz.

[syns Aletris nepalensis Hook.f., Stachyopogon pauciflorus Klotzsch]

Few Flowered Colic-Root, Few-Flowered Star Grass

Dahal et al. (2017) recorded the traditional medicinal use of the aerial parts of this plant [in an unspecified way] in the Tamze Medicinal Plants Conservation Area of Sikkim Himalaya, India for the treatment of cuts and wounds.

Aletris farinosa L.

[syn. Aletris alba (L.) Michx.]

Agueroot, Colic Root, Crow Corn, Mealy Starwort, Unicorn Root, White Colicroot, White Stargrass

Aletris Farinosa Root Extract [INCI; of uncertain composition (see Schmidt 2017)]^a is a recognised cosmetic product ingredient purported to have antioxidant and skin conditioning properties (Standing Committee on Cosmetic Products 2019, CosIng 2023/4).

^a INCI is a registered trademark of the Personal Care Products Council.

Narthecium ossifragum (L.) Huds.

[syns Abama ossifraga (L.) DC., Anthericum ossifragum L.]

Bog Asphodel, Maiden's Hair, Moor Golds, Yellow Grass, Narthécie Brise-Os, Narthécie des Marais, Narthécie Ossifrage, Ährenlilie, Beinbrech, Gelbe Moorlilie

Ingestion of bog asphodel growing in moorland pastures has long been recognised as a cause of secondary (hepatogenous) photosensitisation, mostly in lambs, in the British Isles and Western Europe. The condition is known variously as alveld, plochteach, saut, or yellowses. It occurs most commonly in spring and summer when sunlight intensity and daylight length hours are longer. Affected lambs develop lesions on the ears, face, and sometimes the back, with erythema, oedema, ulceration and necrosis that can be followed by secondary infection and death. It is thought that toxins from bog asphodel damage the liver cells and thereby inhibit the excretion of phylloerythrin (derived from the breakdown of chlorophyll), which then accumulates in the general circulatory system, and in sun-exposed areas produces free radicals that can damage the skin (Pollock et al. 2015, Hussain et al. 2018).

The condition has been described as a crystal-associated cholangiohepatopathy caused by deposition in the bile of a crystalloid material principally composed of calcium salts of steroidal sapogenins derived from so-called lithogenic saponins (principally narthecin) in the bog asphodel (Videm Abdelkader et al. 1984, Knight & Walter 2001-2003, Wisløff et al. 2002, Cullen & Stalker 2016, Hussain et al. 2018). Narthecin, which co-occurs with a minor structurally very similar saponin named xylosin, is a sarsapogenin glycoside, the glycosidic moiety being a branched trisaccharide comprising galactose, glucose, and arabinose. Xylose replaces arabinose in the structure of xylosin. The specific spirostanol forms of narthecin and xylosin are formed through the hydrolysis (during isolation) of a furostanol form of these saponins that are naturally present in the plant and which bear an additional glucose molecule attached at C-26 (Čeh & Hauge 1981). The failure by Flåøyen et al. (1991) to induce toxicity in lambs by the administration of saponins from bog asphodel underlines our imperfect understanding of the pathway by which bog asphodel saponins become the supposed proximal toxin, a crystalloid material comprising calcium salts of steroidal sapogenins.

In a treatise on poisonous plants, Cornevin (1893), referring to Abama ossifraga, noted that the specific epithet alludes to the belief that the bones of cattle that have grazed on the plant become brittle. However, rather than the plant itself, the calcium-poor pasture in which bog asphodel thrives may better account for a higher incidence of broken bones in grazing animals (see Bjerga & Mysterud 1999). Nephrotoxicity is also a feature of bog asphodel-induced intoxication in grazing animals (Bjerga & Mysterud 1999, Angell & Ross 2011, Pollock et al. 2015), 3-methoxy-2(5H)-furanone having been identified as the principal nephrotoxin (Langseth et al. 1999).

References

• Angell J, Ross T (2011) Suspected bog asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum) toxicity in cattle in North Wales. Veterinary Record 169(4): 101–102 [doi] [url] [url-2] [pmid]
• Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2003) An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG II. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 141(4): 399–436 [doi] [url] [url-2]
• Bjerga M, Mysterud A (1999) The summer diet of moose Alces alces in Agder, south Norway - the link to fragile bones and kidney damages? Acta Theriologica 44(1): 107–111 [url] [url-2]
• Carpinteyro Díaz AE, Herfindal L, Rathe BA, Sletta KY, Vedeler A, Haavik S, Fossen T (2019) Cytotoxic saponins and other natural products from flowering tops of Narthecium ossifragum L. Phytochemistry 164: 67–77 [doi] [url] [pmid]
• Čeh L, Hauge JG (1981) Alveld-producing saponins. I. Chemical studies. Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 22(3): 391–402 [doi] [url] [url-2] [pmid]
• Cornevin C (1893) Des Plantes Vénéneuses et des Empoisonnements qu'elles Déterminent. [Poisonous Plants and the Poisonings they Cause]. Paris: Librairie de Firmin-Didot et Cie [WorldCat] [url] [url-2]
• CosIng (2023/4) COSING Ingredients-Fragrance Inventory. [online article]: https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools–databases/cosing/pdf/COSING_Ingredients–Fragrance%20Inventory_v2.pdf ; accessed March 2023 [url] [url-2]
• Cullen JM, Stalker MJ (2016) Liver and biliary system. In: Maxie MG (Ed.) Jubb, Kennedy, & Palmer’s Pathology of Domestic Animals. 6th edn, Vol. 2, pp. 258–352.e1. St Louis, MO: Elsevier [doi] [WorldCat] [url]
• Dahal S, Sharma TP, Borthakur SK (2017) Database on medicinal plants of Tamze Medicinal Plants Conservation Area (MPCA) of Sikkim Himalaya, India. NeBIO 8(1): 45–56 [url] [url-2]
• Flåøyen A, Hjorth Tønnesen H, Grønstøl H, Karlsen J (1991) Failure to induce toxicity in lambs by administering saponins from Narthecium ossifragum. Veterinary Research Communications 15(6): 483–487 [doi] [url] [pmid]
• Hunt P (Ed.) (1968/70) The Marshall Cavendish Encyclopedia of Gardening. London: Marshall Cavendish [WorldCat]
• Hussain SM, Rodrigues Herling V, Mazza Rodrigues PH, Naz I, Khan H, Khan MT (2018) Mini review on photosensitization by plants in grazing herbivores. Tropical Animal Health and Production 50(5): 925–935 [doi] [url] [pmid]
• Knight AP, Walter RG (2001–2003) Plants affecting the skin and liver. In: Knight AP, Walter RG (Eds) A Guide to Plant Poisoning of Animals in North America, pp. 142–185. Jackson, WY: TetonNewMedia [WorldCat] [url]
• Langseth W, Torgersen T, Kolsaker P, Rømming C, Jantsch TG, Mantle PG, Pearce J, Gibson SE, Goicochea MG, Flåøyen A (1999) Isolation and characterization of 3-methoxy-2(5H)-furanone as the principal nephrotoxin from Narthecium ossifragum (L.) Huds. Natural Toxins 7(3): 111–118 [doi] [url] [url-2] [pmid]
• Mabberley DJ (1997) The Plant-Book. A portable dictionary of the higher plants, 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press [WorldCat]
• Pollock ML, Wishart H, Holland JP, Malone FE, Waterhouse A (2015) Photosensitisation of livestock grazing Narthecium ossifragum: Current knowledge and future directions. The Veterinary Journal 206(3): 275–283 [doi] [url] [pmid]
• Schmidt RJ (2017) Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 – a recast of the Cosmetic Products Directive 76/768/EEC – in regard to the safety of plant-derived cosmetic product ingredients. The Expert Witness (20): 35–37 [doi] [url] [url-2]
• Standing Committee on Cosmetic Products (2019) Commission Decision (EU) 2019/701 of 5 April 2019 establishing a glossary of common ingredient names for use in the labelling of cosmetic products. Official Journal of the European Union 62(L 121): 1–370 [url] [url-2]
• Videm Abdelkader S, Čeh L, Dishington IW, Hauge JG (1984) Alveld-producing saponins. II. Toxicological studies. Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 25(1): 76–85 [doi] [url] [url-2] [pmid]
• Willis JC (1973) A Dictionary of the Flowering Plants and Ferns, 8th edn. (Revised by Airy Shaw HK). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press [WorldCat] [url]
• Wisløff H, Wilkins AL, Scheie E, Flåøyen A (2002) Accumulation of sapogenin conjugates and histological changes in the liver and kidneys of lambs suffering from alveld, a hepatogenous photosensitization disease of sheep grazing Narthecium ossifragum. Veterinary Research Communications 26(5): 381–396 [doi] [url] [pmid]

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