Why is wheat preferred to rye for making bread?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
September 10, 2001
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During the Middle Ages (350 A.D. to 1450 A.D.), rye (Secale cereale Linnaeus) [see cay' lee ser ee al' ee] was grown to feed the serfs. It was a weedy grass that did well on poor soils and produced enough food to keep the peasants alive and working. But the bread made from rye was dark and hid the color of a horrific disease.
Ergot (Claviceps purpurea) is a fungus that attacks grasses, principally rye and wheat. It reproduces by replacing the grain with a hard, dark bundle of hyphae called a sclerotium. In rye, this sclerotium looks like a horn. (Ergot is from the French, argot, for spur in reference to this shape.) But this bundle of hyphae contains insidious toxins, alkaloids closely aligned to lysergic acid and LSD. The ergot alkaloids are vasoconstrictors; they restrict the flow of blood through the veins and arteries. If enough of the toxins are consumed,
the blood no longer circulates.
The effects of these alkaloids are devastating. In France, the toxins tended to cause gangrene. People died in agony as their limbs decayed and separated from their bodies. In Germany, the toxins tended to cause extreme burning sensations and fatal convulsions. The disease came to be called St. Anthony's fire for he was the patron saint of epileptics. In any case, psychotic hallucinations were the first indicator. Mass hysteria, murder, and suicides often presaged an epidemic of St. Anthony's fire. Sick and terrified peasants fled to the churches and monasteries for salvation.
In the sanctuary of the church, the people received better food—vegetables, meat, and lighter-colored breads made from uninfected rye and wheat. If the cases of ergotism were mild, a healthy diet took care of the disease and the people recovered. These recoveries reinforced the belief in the holy and pious nature of the church. If the cases were virulent, then surely this was a warning against sin.
It was probably the herbalists in the monasteries that first noted the correlation between wet summers, darker rye bread, and the outbreaks of ergotism. Consequently, the clergy and the ruling class preferred bread made from wheat. If ergot were present, the dark sclerotia were instantly recognized and the wheat destroyed. Dark breads were left to the poor and wheat breads became the status symbol of the wealthy.
Henriette Kress (Henriette's Herbal Homepage) has posted a photograph of a head of rye showing a sclerotium of Claviceps purpurea. To view the photograph, click on the link:
http://www.henriettesherbal.com/eclectic/kings/pics/kings-claviceps.jpg
(Compiled from: "Secale", Hortus Third, Staff Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium, New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Macmillan Publishing, 1976; Medical Botany, Plants Affecting Man's Health, W.H. Lewis and M.P.F. Elvin-Lewis, Wiley-Interscience, John Wiley and Sons, 1977)
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~6~~7~~8~~9~~10~~
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Why is wheat preferred to rye for making bread? Herbal Folklore - September 10, 2001
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