Rye, Oh, Rye!

Fungus on rye crops has been a perpetual problem throughout history. Farmers and consumers of the contaminated grain were oblivious to its effects, which is why symptoms of gangrenous extremities and nervous dysfunction persisted for hundreds of years. Few people attempted to solve the mystery of these symptoms. All that was known was they occurred prominently among the poor, attacked children and weaker adults, and was without the normal, rampant spread that had been seen in plagues across Europe.

The fungus, ergot, which inhabited many rye crops since the 1st century A.D. was so prevalent on rye it was thought to be part of the plant. The plant was harvested, milled, and sold with the toxins in the flour, and then consumed. Consumption of the toxins affected people differently, with the most common being gangrene in fingers, toes, and other extremities, convulsions and hallucinations.

Symptoms in humans were well documented, but the actual cause of ergotism, or ergot poisoning, was not known until the 1670's when a French physician studied commonalities among patients. The physician was able to treat patients, but wasn't able to convince the farmers of the problem and its consequences. Ideal climate conditions for growth of ergot continued, farmers continued to harvest the grain, and thousands of people suffered over the next two hundred years.

Professor Mary Kilbourne Matossian, is a current expert on historical correlation between consumption of grains containing mycotoxins and death in rats and humans. Her past studies include plagues, epidemics of madness, witchcraft and the Salem Witch Hunts in the United States.

Prof. Matossian studied reports of different age groups and of nervous symptom disorders and found innumerous similarities, including hallucinations, convulsions, compulsive bodily movements, reduction in fertility and spontaneous abortions. Matossian linked the Salem Witch Hunts and witchcraft to ergotism by studying where the incidents occurred, the temperature, rainfall, the crops grown in that area and who was affected. The areas where most trials occurred were areas conducive to growing rye, where the temperature was colder and wetter, and ergot fungus was prolific.

Crazy as it sounds, fungus can do just about anything to the health of humans. Ergot poisoning is pretty rare these days, but there is plenty of other fungus lurking in unwanted places to cause a person to wonder where their symptoms came from.