What is Gossypium herbaceum?
Gossypium herbaceum, commonly called Levant cotton, is a perennial shrub of the mallow family that grows to 6′ tall. It is an Old World or Asiatic cotton with short staple-length fibre that is native to northern Africa, Asia Minor and India.Gossypium is defined as a genus of flowering plants, commonly known as cotton, which includes several species cultivated primarily for their fiber, seeds, and other parts that contain pigment glands producing gossypol.
What are the side effects of Gossypium herbaceum?
High doses of gossypol (100 times the dose used for birth control) can cause malnutrition, blood circulation problems, heart failure, changes in hair color, and other problems. There isn’t enough information to know whether gossypol is safe to use directly on the skin. It can cause a burning sensation. But gossypol is possibly unsafe when used at higher doses or for longer than one year. Higher doses might lead to malnutrition, stomach bleeding, heart failure, and liver problems. Permanent infertility also seems to be more likely at higher doses and when used longer-term.High concentrations of free gossypol may be responsible for acute clinical signs of gossypol poisoning which include respiratory distress, impaired body weight gain, anorexia, weakness, apathy, and death after several days. However, the most common toxic effects is the impairment of male and female reproduction.