Native Salvia?

[Yeti101]

I found what I'm pretty sure is a native salvia growing in the Barrington Tops area, at the top of a waterfall (cool huh?). It has small light purple flowers,slightly furry leaves, and the smaller leaves are quite fleshy. It almost fits one of the native salvias listed in 'Plants of the Sydney Region' by Beadle et al, except the flowers are too small. Does any one know what it is and if it useful for anything?

[Guest Thelema]

sounds like salvia reflexa, DRduke lists its use as a poison.

im doing a bioassay on it in a few weeks.

stay tuned to the hospital reports!

[Darklight]

Good luck, take care ( you have a sitter? yes I am nagging, people actually do care )

Of course you'll let us know how it goes :-)

I'm still waiting on a response so I can get back to yr email of the other day, sorry for the delay.

[Adrian]

Thelema, S.reflexa was my first thought too.

good luck.

[Alchemist]

Found some info on reflexa. First it seems that its toxic principle are simple water soluble nitrate salts which are only poisonous in massive quantities. An acetone or ethanol extract won't have these.

Also it seems to contain a lot more salviarin than S.splendens does, which has predominantly splendidin. Still at 1.16mg/g it is still quite low.

My guess is that Thelema will live to see another uneventful day, but a fair amount of 10x (using acetone) extract smoked is worth a try.

Have a read for yourselves.

The toxic properties of Salvia reflexa.

--------------------------------------

Williams, Cecil H.; Hines, H. J. G Australian Vet. J. (1940),16 14-20.

Salvia reflexa (wild mint or mint weed), known in Queensland and N. S. Wales as a plant poisonous to stock, was studied to discover the toxic principle.

Tests of the dried plant for saponin and for cyanogenetic and other toxic glycosides were neg., but ppts. were obtained with all the usual alkaloidal reagents. The substance responsible for these ppts. is extractable by refluxing with acetone and was shown to be choline.

It is present, however, to only 0.05% and is probably not a factor in the poisoning. The dried plant material was free of nitrite

but contained 5% KNO3. Maceration of the plant material for 20 hrs. with water and a little CHCl3 reduced 40% of the nitrate to

nitrite. In a feeding test 800 g. of the material was macerated in 5 l. H2O for 40 hrs. and the liquid expressed. About 0.75 kg. of the marc was fed to a sheep without ill effects, but 3 l. of the expressed liquid was fatal to another sheep in about 6 hrs.

The O2-carrying capacity of the blood was reduced from 16 to 4.53 ml. O2 per 100 ml. of blood at death. This is interpreted

as indicating conversion of 72% of the hemoglobin to methemoglobin by the action of the nitrite. Conversion of nitrate to nitrite may occur through the agency of enzymes from the plant or the animal. Since about 10% of the nitrate fed to sheep is converted to nitrite in the animal

body (Seekles and Sjollema, C. A. 26, 3842) 30-60 g. of nitrate should

constitute a toxic dose for a 60-lb. sheep. Eighty g. of KNO3 killed a sheep in 48 hrs., 71.5% of the hemoglobin having been converted to methemoglobin. The plasma of the abnormal blood gave a strong test

for nitrite. However, the juice from 800 g. plant material, corresponding to only 25 g. KNO3, was fatal to a 45-lb. sheep in 21 hrs. Thus the nitrate in the plant acts similarly to nitrate by itself,

but the toxic dose can be much smaller. The accumulation of nitrates in plants, the toxic action of nitrates and nitrites

and nitrite poisoning under field conditions are reviewed.

Ordinarily herbage contg. large amts. of inorg. N is unpalatable to stock and the large dose necessary for toxic effects will not be ingested.

Chemical analysis

------------------

Nieto, Matias; Gallardo V., OscarRossomando, Pedro C.; Tonn,Carlos E. 8-Hydroxysalviarin and 7,8-didehydrorhyacophiline, two new diterpenes from Salvia reflexa.

J. Nat. Prod. (1996), 59(9), 880-882.

Extraction and Isolation. The dried aerial parts (2.4 kg) of S. reflexa were extracted twice with Me2CO at room temperature for 10 days, and the resulting residue (130 g) was chromatographed over Si gel using a hexane-CHCl3 gradient. After several column chromatography separations, salviarin (1) (2.85 g), 6-hydroxysalviarin (2) (0.043 g),

8-hydroxysalviarin (3) (0.310 g), and 7,8-didehydrorhyacophiline (5)(0.135 g) were obtained.

The dried roots (75 g) of S. reflexa were triturated and extracted with boiling Me2CO. The residue (8 g) was purified over Si gel using a hexane-EtOAc gradient, and after several column chromatography separations, oleanolic acid (0.980 g) and -sitosterol (0.080 g) were obtained.

[This message has been edited by Alchemist (edited 03 May 2002).]