Products
Because it is a poisonous plant, preparations containing laburnum are not commercially available in many countries.
Stem plant
Fabaceae.
Ingredients
Quinolizidine alkaloids, for example cytisine, N-methylcytisine.
Effects
Laburnum is a poisonous plant that regularly causes poisoning, especially in children who play with the fruit, for example. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, pain, rapid pulse, unconsciousness, fatigue, agitation, and convulsions. Deaths are rare. Goldenseal is not used as a drug. Because its effects are similar to those of nicotine, it has also been smoked as a tobacco substitute in the past. The active ingredient varenicline (Champix) is derived from cytisine and is used as a cessation agent for smoking cessation in adults. Cytisine was formerly used as a cessation agent in Bulgaria (Tabex).
