Lay Summary Foothill death camas is an early, cool-season, perennial native plant that during the early spring when better forage is not available, poisons sheep. The major toxins in death camas are zygadenine, zygacine, 3-angeloylzygadendine and 3-veratroylzygadenine, the latter two are found in death camas reproductive tissues at high concentrations. Results from this work suggest that except for 3-angeloylzygadendine, sheep metabolize death camas toxins. Sheep that have differences in rates of alkaloid absorption or compromised liver function could potentially be affected more severely by death camas.
Green et al. (Fri,) studied this question.