Two 'deadly' flowers may hold the seeds of new medicines
Scientists worked out how wolfsbane and larkspur — two plants long known for their toxicity — build a complex compound that could lead to new treatments for pain, malaria and cancer.
Wolfsbane and larkspur have frightened people for centuries — both can cause nerve damage and paralysis at very low doses. But researchers have now shown that the same chemistry that makes these plants dangerous could also make them useful.
By tracking thousands of genes across the two species, the team identified six enzymes the plants use to build a complex compound called atisinium. They then recreated that process inside tobacco plants, giving scientists a sustainable way to produce and study the rare molecule without harvesting wild plants.
The achievement matters because a related, well-known compound from these plants, aconitine, has never been successfully built in a lab, despite first being isolated nearly 200 years ago. Cracking the pathway opens the door to studying a whole family of related compounds.
Researchers say the molecules show promise against pain, malaria, cancer and even agricultural pests — a reminder that some of nature's most feared plants may still have a lot of good to offer.
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