4) Monkshood (Aconitum)
This charming bloom is in fact riddled with a poison called aconitine from root to flower. He looks like a handsome chap but he’s actually a callous killer. Symptoms begin no more than an hour after ingestion but if you get a load into your system death is pretty much instantaneous.
It starts off with the classic nausea, abdominal pain scenario then develops to burning sensations on your face and abdomen. This is followed by numbness and muscle weakness, sweating, dizziness, difficulty in breathing, headache, and confusion. Eventually your heart just gives up the ghost and stops.
On a positive note it’s great if you’re thinking of going on a poisoning spree, in the post-mortem the cause of death just looks like asphyxia. Also the skin absorbs aconitine with great ease, so just picking up leaves without gloves on could put you in hospital. In January 2009, the British ‘Curry Killer’ Lakhvir Singh, killed her lover Lakhvinder Cheema with a curry dish laced with Indian Aconite. She’s in prison now.
