Consolida ajacis (doubtful knight's spur or rocket larkspur) is an annual flowering plant of the family Ranunculaceae native to Eurasia. It is widespread in other areas, including much of North America, where it is an introduced species. It is frequently grown in gardens as an ornamental for its spikes of blue, pink or white flowers. It may reach a meter in height. Since the aerial parts and seeds of C. ajacis have been found to contain diterpenoid alkaloids (see chemical constituents below), including the highly toxic methyllycaconitine,V. Venkateswarlu, S. K. Srivastava, B. S. Joshi, H. K. Desai and S. W. Pelletier (1995) J. Nat. Prod. 58 1527-1532. the plants should be considered as poisonous.
Sowing In the UK, Consolida ajacis can be sowed under cover between February and April, or directly outdoors between April and May and/or late August and September. Consolida ajacis 'Dark Blue'. Retrieved 12 February 2020
Flowering In Europe, it flowers between June and October.
Chemical constituents The first alkaloid to be isolated from C. ajacis seeds was ajaconine, reported by Keller and Volker in 1914.O. Keller and O. Volker (1914) Arch. Pharm. 251 207-216. Since that time, over thirty other structurally related diterpenoid alkaloids have been reported; these are:
14-acetylbrowniine 14-acetyldelcosine 14-acetyldelectine 13-O-acetylvakhmatine ajabicine ajacine ajacusine ajadelphine ajadelphinine ajadine ajadinine ajanine ambiguine anthranoyllycoctonine browniine 14-deacetylajadine 14-deacetylambiguine delajacine delajacirine delajadine delcosine delectine delphatine delpheline delphisine delsoline deltaline deltatsine dihydroajaconine gigactonine lycoctonine 18-methoxygadesine methyllycaconitine 19-oxoanthranoyllycoctonine 19-oxodelphatine takaosamine vakhmatine
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References
External links Jepson Manual Treatment