page_title: Acorus
section_title: Toxicity
hierarchical_section_title: Acorus / Toxicity
caption_attribution_description: Acorus calamus
context_page_description: Acorus is a genus of monocot flowering plants. This genus was once placed within the family Araceae, but more recent classifications place it in its own family Acoraceae and order Acorales, of which it is the sole genus of the oldest surviving line of monocots. Some older studies indicated that it was placed in a lineage, that also includes aroids, Tofieldiaceae, and several families of aquatic monocots. However, modern phylogenetic studies demonstrate that Acorus is sister to all other monocots. Common names include calamus and sweet flag.
  The genus is native to North America and northern and eastern Asia, and naturalised in southern Asia and Europe from ancient cultivation. The known wild populations are diploid except for some tetraploids in eastern Asia, while the cultivated plants are sterile triploids, probably of hybrid origin between the diploid and tetraploid forms.
context_section_description: Products derived from Acorus calamus were banned in 1968 as food additives by the United States Food and Drug Administration. The questionable chemical derived from the plant was β-asarone. Confusion exists whether all strains of A. calamus contain this substance.
  Four varieties of A. calamus strains exist in nature: diploid, triploid, tetraploid and hexaploid. Diploids do not produce the carcinogenic β-asarone. Diploids are known to grow naturally in Eastern Asia (Mongolia and C Siberia) and North America. The triploid cytotype probably originated in the Himalayan region, as a hybrid between the diploid and tetraploid cytotypes. The North American Calamus is known as Acorus calamus var. americanus or more recently as simply Acorus americanus. Like the diploid strains of A. calamus in parts of the Himalayas, Mongolia, and C Siberia, the North American diploid strain does not contain the carcinogenic β-asarone. Research has consistently demonstrated that "β-asarone was not detectable in the North American spontaneous diploid Acorus [Calamus var. Americanus]".
caption: Sweet Flag (2006 drawing by USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center)
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