Aconites and Arafat

What a difference twenty-four hours makes at this season! Yes, the snow did arrive and the aconites have now curled their petals under the snow layer. Their small, simple, pretty flowers appear charming and cheerful, but this is little more than a delusive façade hiding their dark secret.

Winter aconites are one of the most poisonous plants in cultivation in gardens. This doesn’t detract from their attraction as useful winter flowering plants, but their toxic qualities have caused several fatalities throughout the centuries. Greek classical literature records the use of winter aconite poison. The famously poisonous bulbs have been used in the past as a recognized method of killing wolves.

The article below even suggests that aconite poisoning caused Yasser Arafat’s death.

British intelligence: Arafat poisoned
Nov 28, 2004, 13:40
London- The late PA chief Yasser Arafat was poisoned with a widely known toxic substance termed as “Acontine”, which is usually extracted from an Asian plant called “Aconite”, a report, issued recently by the British intelligence, disclosed.

The report said that the same substance, which could instantly dissolve in liquids, couldn’t be forensically detected in human body 12 hours after its penetration into it.The same poison causes fatal symptoms in the blood circulation, nervous, and digestive systems, according to the report.

It’s probable that Arafat was gradually poisoned, as 3 to 5 mgs of that poison is enough to cause his death, it highlighted, and noted that one of his top aides might have sneaked such a substance into his meals during the holy month of Ramadan, causing his slow death as was the case with the former Algerian president Hawari Boumaddine.

Well-informed Palestinian sources, meanwhile, revealed that the US administration had refused to receive Arafat at “Mayo Clinic” hospital, as his illness coincided with the holding of the US presidential elections.The administration had already been acquainted with the nature of Arafat’s disease, therefore, it declined to receive him at that hospital so as not be embarrassed by his death, according to the sources.