lycopsamine/carcinogenesis

Plants producing dehydropyrrolizidine alkaloids (DHPAs) are found throughout the world and they are dangerous to human and animal health. Several DHPAs are carcinogenic but only riddelliine has been classified as a potential human carcinogen by the National Toxicology Program. As DHPA-related

Comfrey has been consumed by humans as a vegetable and a tea and used as an herbal medicine for more than 2000 years. Comfrey, however, produces hepatotoxicity in livestock and humans and carcinogenicity in experimental animals. Comfrey contains as many as 14 pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PA), including

Pyrrolizidine alkaloid-containing plants are the most common poisonous plants affecting livestock, wildlife, and humans. The U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP) classified riddelliine, a tumorigenic pyrrolizidine alkaloid, as "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen" in the NTP 12th