ABSTRACT
Mycotoxins represent one of the oldest periodic plague
attributable to consumption of food unsuitable for
humans and animals. During the Middle Ages and possibly even back to
ancient Egypt and Greece, the symptoms attributable
to rye contaminated by ergot (mycotoxin produced by
Claviceps purpurea) were well known, even though
their origin was not understood. Ergotism is a vaso-
constricting disease caused by ergot alkaloids with
severe neurological alterations, also called St. Antony’s
fire because it causes burning symptoms. Over 370
hospitals were built in the name of St. Antony for
those suffering from this disease. Matossian (1) linked the occurrence of ergotism
with periods when there was high incidence of people
persecuted as witches. It was demonstrated that in
those years, when there was a large number of witch
trials, there were usually also high rye prices, thus
indicating that it had been a year of poor growing for
rye, and, therefore, people were not very selective in
what they consumed.
