Abstract
work suggests that the plant would be dangerous if it constituted a large part of the diet. Apart from acute poisoning, 5 to 10% methemoglobin was noted in the blood of cattle when 40% of an acute dose was consumed. The long-term effects of chronic methemoglobinemia caused by 3-NPA and 3-NPOH have not been studied in livestock. Nevertheless, a 5 to 6% level of methemoglobin in blood was responsible for fatigue in children (Petukhov and Ivanov, 1970) and affected the central nervous system in rats (Garbuz, 1971). Moreover, the 3-carbon nitro compound is more toxic than nitrite alone. Animals killed by nitro-bearing Astragalus die from a combination of the nitro compound and the inorganic nitrite that originates when NO2 is formed from 3-NPA and 3-NPOH in the digestive tract. Percentage of methemoglobin in the blood indicates the extent of absorption of the nitro compound. But even after a fatal dose of 3-NPA or 3-NPOH, the blood rarely contains more than 50% of the nitrite level associated with acute methemoglobinemia.
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