• Common name : Monkshood
• Scientific name : Aconitum napellus
• Family : Ranunculaceae
• Native land : Western and Central Europe
The name ‘monkshood’ is derived from the shape of the flowers, which look like blue helmets. It is a herbaceous perennial plant. The leaves are rounded, palmately divided into five to seven deeply lobed segments. They have hooded flowers produced on stalks well above the toothed foliage, with colourful sepals providing the shape and colour. Aconite was traditionally used in western medicine as an anaesthetic. It has been replaced by safer drugs. It is still used in very small amounts in traditional Chinese medicine for Yang deficiency, or energy depletion.
