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Mission:
The mission of the Poisonous Plant Research Laboratory is to investigate poisonous plants, their toxins and teratogens, their mode of action, to identify conditions under which poisoning occurs, and from the information gained, develop methods to prevent or moderate livestock poisoning due to these plants. Major investigations include: (1) Determine the mechanism(s) by which toxic plants cause injury to grazing animals and develop dianostic procedures for better diagnosisof naturally occurring plant intoxications; (2) Determine the toxic and reproductive process in livestock from ingestion of poisonous range plants, such as locoweed, ponderosa pine needles, broom snakeweed, and seleniferous forage; (3) Isolate and identify by structural elucidation teratogenic and toxic compounds from poisonous plants, such as Veratrum, Lupine, Conium, and Nicotiana spp.; investigate the structure and activity relationship of natural compounds and prepare analogs; (4) Measure toxin concentration within poisonous plants as influenced by soils, sites, environmental conditions, plant parts, and stage of growth; (5) Determine grazing behavior and conditions under which livestock consume poisonous plants suchas locoweed and larkspur, and evaluate factors which influence consumption.