Monkshood
Aconitine is a chemical alkaloid extracted from the monkshood plant, also known as the devil's helmet or wolf's bane. Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhoea, respiratory failure and cardiac arrest.
Aconitine in Christie's works[]
- 4.50 from Paddington - Harold Crackenthorpe took a pill from a box of what looked like sleeping tablets but which contained aconitine.
- They do it with Mirrors - a box of kirsch flavoured chocolates was laced with aconitine.
- Aconitine (Christie called it aconite) is one of two poisons mentioned in her early poem In a Dispensary.