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All parts of these plants are toxic, due to the presence of alkaloids. Grazing animals, such as sheep and cattle, may be affected and human fatalities have occurred. [106] Delphinium spp. larkspur Ranunculaceae: Contains the alkaloid delsoline. Young plants and seeds are poisonous, causing nausea, muscle twitches, paralysis, and often death.
The toxins also remain stable when dried and stored, with bulbs remaining toxic for two decades after collection. [31] The seeds and the bulbs are the most toxic parts of the plants. [7] A survivor of poisoning said of the experience, "My mouth got tingly, and later the sensation moved down my throat." [32] Human poisonings are rare.
Humans have also fallen victim to zygacine poisoning by mistaking the death camas for other edible plants. In 1994, a man presented to the emergency department with gastrointestinal symptoms, a depressed heart rate and low blood pressure after inadvertently eating plant material derived from a species of Zigadenus . [ 12 ]
The neurotoxin category contains a number of distinct poisons, though all were originally purified from plants originating in South America. [86] The effect with which injected curare poison is usually associated is muscle paralysis and resultant death. [ 87 ]
[1] [13] Cicutoxin is very poisonous, and water hemlock is considered one of North America's most toxic plants. [1] [14] Ingestion of Cicuta can be fatal in humans, and there are reports in medical literature of severe poisoning and death as early as 1670. [1] A number of people have also died following ingestion of the plant in the 20th and ...
Physostigma venenosum, the Calabar bean or ordeal bean, is a leguminous plant, Endemic to tropical Africa, with a seed poisonous to humans.It derives the first part of its scientific name from a curious beak-like appendage at the end of the stigma, in the centre of the flower; this appendage, though solid, was supposed to be hollow (hence the name from φῦσα, a bladder, and stigma).
The toxic principle in the plant is oenanthotoxin, a polyunsaturated higher alcohol that is a potent convulsant and works by blocking the γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) system in the brain. The plant is very poisonous to humans and livestock and can cause death if poisoning is left untreated after ingestion.
The term is also used to describe toxic chemicals produced by plants themselves, which function as defensive agents against their predators. Most examples pertaining to this definition of phytotoxin are members of various classes of specialised or secondary metabolites , including alkaloids , terpenes , and especially phenolics , though not all ...