Grayanotoxins are neurotoxins. They're active ingredients in mad honey, produced by bees harvesting pollen and nectar of plants carrying the toxins. Grayanotoxins are found in plants of Rhododendron and others in the family Ericacea, such as doghobble.
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Grayanotoxin is also known as
andromedotoxin
acetylandromedol
rhodotoxin
asebotoxin
Effects of mad honey poisoning are described in records by Xenophon, Aristotle, Strabo, Pliny the Elder and Columella. They all report illness after from eating "maddening" honey from the pollen or nectar of Rhododendron luteum and Rhododendron ponticum.
Consumption of the plants or secondary products, including tea, herbal remedies, cigarettes, honey or honeycomb, can cause grayanotoxin poisoning. Overconsumption feels like the world's worst hangover, not surprising as alcohol is also a poison.
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Mad honey is most frequently produced in parts of Turkey and Nepal as a recreational drug, traditional medicine and source of local income. Turkish mad honey has a golden to amber red hue. The price for honey made by grayanotoxin-ingesting bees is steep.
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In Nepal the giant honeybees (Apis dorsata) who make the honey nest in the highest cliffs. Honey hunters smoke the bees out and climb up on rope ladders to retrieve the treasure. See stunning photos of the honey hunt HERE.
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Other plants with grayanotoxins are Kalmia latifolia (mountain laurel) and Pieris japonica or Japanese Andromeda. Ingestion is dangerous to deadly for animals such as humans, dogs, horses, cats and cows. The acrid taste of the plant usually repulses consumers.
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Grayanotoxins occur in plants of the family Ericaceae, especially members of genera Agarista, Craibiodendron, Kalmia, Leucothoe, Lyonia, Pieris and Rhododendron. There are thousands of species. While many carry grayanotoxins, just a few have dangerous levels.
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Species with high concentrations of grayanotoxins, such as Rhododendruon ponticum and R. luteum, are most common in regions of Turkey bordering the Black Sea, such as Sinope. These are the primary Turkish sources of mad honey nectar.
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Rhododendron grayanotoxins are found throughout the plant including roots, stems, leaves, flowers, pollen and nectar. Grayanotoxin poisoning has mild to severe symptoms such as:
nausea
vomiting
salivation
sweating
dizziness
weakness
blurred vision
low blood pressure
irregular or slow heartbeat
paralysis
death
Honey produced from the nectar of Andromeda polifolia has levels of grayanotoxins high enough to cause full body paralysis and suffocation due to diaphragm paralysis.
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On that happy note, grayanotoxin and mad honey poisoning are not common. Most poisonings happen to men who overuse mad honey as a "sweet Viagra". Next common is overconsumption as a recreational drug. A person might also have an unknown sensitivity.
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Honey obtained from spoonwood (mountain laurel) and sheep-laurel (Kalmia angustifolia) can cause severe symptoms. Honey from Lestrimelitta limao or robber bees may induce paralysis. Grayanotoxin testing is inconclusive due to rarity and robber lifestyle of the bees.
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In a 1912 report of grayanotoxin I, then called andromedotoxin, German phytochemist Otto Tunmann isolates it from tannin and glucose of an Ericaceae plant. Twenty years later, S. W. Hardikar at University of Edinburgh describes rhododendron poisoning by this compound.
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