Our first crossover episode this season with Dr. Matt Candeias of In Defense of Plants stars everyone’s favorite irritating plant-originated substance: urushiol! Join us for a light-hearted deep dive into urushiol, aka the stuff in poison ivy that makes you soooo itchy/burny/scratchy. Have you ever wondered why popping a benadryl doesn’t relieve those oozing, raised welts all over your gardening arms? Or whether a poison ivy rash has ever been used as evidence in a murder case? Or why poison ivy and other plants produce this substance in the first place? Don’t worry, just like a poison ivy rash after a summer gardening sesh, we’ve got you covered.
| History | Biology |
| Couch, James F. “That Perennial Public Enemy, Poison Ivy.” The Scientific Monthly 42.5 (1936): 460-463. | Stasiuk, M., & Kozubek, A. (2010). Biological activity of phenolic lipids. Cellular and Molecular life sciences, 67(6), 841-860. |
| Mitich, Larry W. “Poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac – the virulent weeds.” Weed technology 9.3 (1995): 653-656. | Gladman, A. C. (2006). Toxicodendron dermatitis: poison ivy, oak, and sumac. Wilderness & Environmental Medicine, 17(2), 120-128. |
| Piper, William N. “Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, and Poison Sumac.” AJN The American Journal of Nursing 54.7 (1954): 814-815. | Kim, Y., Flamm, A., ElSohly, M. A., Kaplan, D. H., Hage Jr, R. J., Hamann, C. P., & Marks Jr, J. G. (2019). Poison Ivy, Oak, and Sumac Dermatitis: What Is Known and What Is New?. Dermatitis, 30(3), 183-190. |
| Rostenberg, Adolph. “An anecdotal biographical history of poison ivy.” AMA archives of dermatology 72.5 (1955): 438-445. | Kalish, R. S. (1991). Recent developments in the pathogenesis of allergic contact dermatitis. Archives of dermatology, 127(10), 1558-1563. |
| Senchina, David S. “Ethnobotany of poison ivy, poison oak, and relatives (Toxicodendron spp., Anacardiaceae) in America: Veracity of historical accounts.” Rhodora 108.935 (2006): 203-227. | Uzzaman, A., & Cho, S. H. (2012, May). Classification of hypersensitivity reactions. In Allergy Asthma Proc (Vol. 33, No. Suppl 1, pp. S96-S99). |
| Vogl, Otto. “Oriental lacquer, poison ivy, and drying oils.” Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry 38.24 (2000): 4327-4335. | |
| https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/no-ill-nature-the-surprising-history-and-science-of-poison-ivy-and-its-relatives | |
| https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-co-amick-trial-closes-20180425-story.html |
| Ecology/Botany |
| Cojocaru, Miriam, et al. “5-(12-Heptadecenyl)-resorcinol, the major component of the antifungal activity in the peel of mango fruit.” Phytochemistry 25.5 (1986): 1093-1095. |
| Aziz, Mina, et al. “MALDI-MS imaging of urushiols in poison ivy stem.” Molecules 22.5 (2017): 711. |
| Kim, Jin-Chul, et al. “Antimicrobial activities of urushiol and urushiol derivatives.” Clean Technology 13.1 (2007): 22-27. |
| Craig, John C., et al. “New GLC analysis of urushiol congeners in different plant parts of poison ivy, Toxicodendron radicans.” Journal of pharmaceutical sciences 67.4 (1978): 483-485. |
| Baer, H., et al. “Catecholic and other constituents of the leaves of Toxicodendron radicans and variation of urushiol concentrations within one plant.” Phytochemistry 19.5 (1980): 799-802. |
| Senchina, David S. “Beetle interactions with poison ivy and poison oak (Toxicodendron P. Mill. sect. Toxicodendron, Anacardiaceae).” The Coleopterists Bulletin 59.3 (2005): 328-334. |
| Howden, Henry F., Anne T. Howden, and Paul O. Ritcher. “Insects feeding on poison oak (Rhus toxicodendron L.).” The Coleopterists Bulletin 5.2 (1951): 17-19. |
| Mohan, Jacqueline E., et al. “Biomass and toxicity responses of poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) to elevated atmospheric CO2.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103.24 (2006): 9086-9089. |
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