S
Contraindications, Interactions, and Side Effects (Star Grass) — Not covered (AHP).
“Health hazards not known with proper therapeutic dosages” (PH2) (but PH2 designates no
specific quantified dosage! JAD). No significant side effects were noted after 6 months (SHT).
Varro Tyler cautioned against self-medication with BPH. Whenever treating BPH, a practitioner
should be involved. Base-line levels of PSA should be established before considering an herbal
treatment (JAD).STAR OF BETHLEHEM (Ornithogalum umbellatum L.) +Activities (Star of Bethlehem) — Poison (f; CRC).
Indications (Star of Bethlehem) — Adenopathy (f; CRC); Debility (f; CRC); Lymphosis (f; CRC).STAVESACRE (Delphinium staphisagria L.) XAs so often in plants that I describe as too dangerous to take, many of the folk indications come from
homeopathy (especially those labeled (f; HHB; PH2) below), which stresses poisonous plants in
extremely high doses. Unfortunately, the naive don’t always understand the homeopathic dosages. I
hope the nonbotanists who wrote Commission E and the Herbal PDR have figured out the larkspurs
better than I have. Otherwise, they know not of which larkspur they speak. There are more than a
dozen Consolidas and Delphiniums, many called larkspurs. And don’t forget the pediculicide stave-
sacre, D. staphisagria L. After wasting a day with the nomenclatorial nuances, I feel I should treat
three species or lump them all into one, larkspur (Consolida regalis Gray (formerly Delphinium
consolida); the slightly different rocket larkspur, Consolida ajacis L. Schur; and finally the stavesacre,
Delphinium staphasiagria L., which is not covered by the USDA. All are poisonous and dangerous,
and probably not reliably distinguished by nonbotanists. So it is, methinks, a bit optimistic to assume
the data in the literature have been based on positive identification (i.e., better speculations than mine).