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On this date in 1854, an Albany, N.Y. man named John Hendrickson hanged for the murder by aconite poisoning of his wife, Maria. “He has suffered the highest penalty of the law,” New York’s Weekly Herald pronounced the next day — “but whether justly or not, will likely never be known on earth.”...The district attorney introduced evidence courtesy of chemists named Salisbury and Swinburne, to the effect that it was no mean arsenic that carried away Maria Hendrickson but the more exotic potion of aconite — derived from a toxic herb seeded (per Ovid) by Cerberus himself. One can peruse...

10. ManchineelWould you believe that there's a tree so poisonous that you don't actually have to touch it to be harmed? It's called the manchineel tree (Hippomane mancinella), found throughout the Florida Everglades, Central America and the Caribbean. Inhaling sawdust or smoke from the 30-foot (9.1-meter) tall tree may result in a variety of uncomfortable side effects, including coughing, laryngitis and bronchitis. Some reports suggest that simply standing beneath the tree during a rainstorm and being splashed by runoff may result in rashes and itching. Your car isn't even safe from this toxic tree: Park under its low branches, and...

stored in the drawers, including Hyoscyamus Niger, which in medieval times "was often used in combination with other plants to a make ‘magic brews’ with psychoactive properties"; Aconitum Napellus, which in ancient Roman times "was a such a common poison of choice among murders and assassins that its cultivation was prohibited"; and Cicuta Virosa, which some have speculated "was the hemlock used by the ancient Greek Republic as the state poison but as it is a native of northern Europe this may not be true," but "is so toxic that a single bite into its root can be fatal" regardless.

Health officials warned the public Friday to throw away any herbal tea purchased from a Chinatown shop, after two people became critically ill after consuming the tea which was found to contained Aconite, a lethal poison. In separate incidents from February and March, a woman in her 50s and a man in his 30s became gravely ill within an hour of drinking tea made from leaves supplied by the same San Francisco herbalist. The tea leaves were purchased at the Sun Wing Wo Trading Company, located at 1105 Grant Ave. in Chinatown in San Francisco. Each person quickly became weak,...