Know Your Plants... Safe or Poisonous?

Author:

Ann King Filmer, Ph.D.
Director of Communications
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Dean's Office
e-mail: afilmer@ucdavis.edu

URL: http://envhort.ucdavis.edu/ce/king/

Did You Know?

• Each year over 100,000 people in the United States call Poison Control Centers regarding plant and mushroom exposures.
• Young children, and sometimes pets, will often chew and eat anything within reach no matter how it tastes.
• There is no easy "test" for knowing poisonous plants from those which are safe to eat.
• Teas and home made medicines made from plants can be poisonous.
• Some plants have substances which are very irritating to the skin, mouth, and tongue. Immediate burning pain is common, and sometimes stomach upset, mouth and tongue swelling or breathing problems may occur.
• Heating and cooking do not necessarily destroy a plant's or mushroom's toxic parts.
• Some plants may cause a skin rash. Sometimes the rash occurs only after being in sunlight or gets worse with sunlight.
• Some plants may cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramps.
• Eating a small amount of a plant may not be a problem, but large or repeated doses may be harmful.
• Animals and birds eat plants that may be unsafe for humans.

Mushrooms

• Eating any mushrooms collected outdoors should be considered dangerous. Call the Poison Control Center even if you only think that someone has eaten one. Even after a serious poisoning, symptoms may not appear until many hours later. Do not wait until symptoms appear.
• Symptoms of severe mushroom poisoning can include intense vomiting and diarrhea and can lead to liver failure and death.
• Eating mushrooms collected outdoors can be very risky, because many poisonous mushrooms look and taste like ones that are safe to eat. There is no easy way to tell the difference between safe and unsafe mushrooms.
• Teach children never to touch or taste outdoor mushrooms.

Herbal Medicines

• Herbal medicine is the use of drugs found in plants for prevention and cure of disease. Some are safe but others may produce harmful side effects.
• FDA approval is not required for package or marketing claims.
• Unlike approved drugs, herbs are almost entirely unregulated for safety, uniformity of contents, and contamination.
• Herbal remedies may have other unlabeled medicines or materials mixed in with them.
• Many herbal medicines are taken by drinking a tea. Avoid concentrating or over-steeping a tea remedy.
• Herbal extracts, tablets, and powders are also used.
• The correct dose of herbal products is often hard to determine.
• When herbs are taken with a prescribed or over-the-counter drug, health problems may occur. It is wise to check with your doctor.
• Because scientific studies have not been done on man herbs, pregnant women, breast feeding mothers, infants and young children should probably not use herbs. Older people with serious health conditions should also be careful about the use of herbs.
• An herbal treatment that does not work, even if it won't hurt you, could delay getting necessary medical treatment.
• A "natural" product from a plant is not necessarily better than the same chemical produced in a laboratory.
• Some herbal products contain active ingredients that can produce unexpected side effects (for example, Saw palmetto contains estrogen, a female hormone).
• Examples of potentially harmful plant remedies:

Hay Fever

• Millions of Americans have hay fever. Symptoms include sneezing, runny nose, red itching eyes, and throat irritation.
• Plant pollen in the air is a common cause of this condition. People should learn which plants cause their symptoms and try to avoid them.
• If you have an allergy to the pollen of certain plants, see or call your doctor for a prescription for medicine before the plants bloom. Contact your local American Lung Association for pamphlets on hay fever plants, and for gardening tips regarding such plants.

Preventing Poisoning Exposures

• If you have small children or curious pets, consider removing toxic plants from your garden and house.
• Before buying a plant, have the store tell you the name of the plant and label it with both the common and botanical name.
• Show grandparents and baby sitters where the plant label is. It is very hard for Poison Specialists to identify plants from a description given on the phone. Know the names of your plants before a poisoning happens.
• House plants should be placed out of the reach of the very young.
• Store labeled bulbs and seeds safely away from children and pets. Avoid confusing bulbs with onions you can eat.
• Use protective gloves and clothing when handling plants that may be irritating to the skin. Wash clothes afterwards.
• Do not eat plants or mushrooms collected outdoors, unless you are certain that they are safe.
• Teach children not to put any part of a plant in the mouth. This means leaves, stems, bark, seeds, nuts, berries and bulbs.
• Do not allow children to suck nectar from flowers or make "tea" from the leaves.
• Never chew, or let children chew, on jewelry made from seeds or beans.
• Throw away plant leaves and flowers in a safe way so that children and pets cannot get to them.
• Smoke from fires made of twigs and other parts of poisonous plants, including poison oak, can irritate or harm the eyes, throat and other parts of the body.
• As a general rule, plants toxic to humans are also toxic to pets.

Pesticides

• Carefully read and follow directions on the label.
• If you suspect a poisoning, immediately call the Poison Control Center.
• For information on the safe use of pesticides, contact the University of California Cooperative Extension office or the Agricultural Commissioner in your county.

Be Prepared !

• Put Poison Control Center stickers on your telephones. Call the Poison Control Center to get stickers for your phones and for the phones of grandparents and baby-sitters.
• Have a one ounce bottle of Syrup of Ipecac (it causes vomiting) in your home for each child.
• Use Ipecac ONLY on advice of the Poison Control Center or a doctor.
• You can find Syrup of Ipecac in most pharmacies. It is not expensive and you do not need a prescription to buy it. Ask for it at the pharmacy counter.
• Be sure to take Syrup of Ipecac with you when traveling with small children.

First Aid for Exposures

In California, call the California Poison Control System at:

1-800-876-4766

(1-800-8-POISON)

TTY: 1-800-972-3323

Treatment of Exposure:

Mouth: Remove any remaining parts of the plant or mushroom from victim's mouth and clean out the mouth. Give a small amount of water.

Skin: Wash any skin exposed to the plant with soap and cool water as soon as possible.

Eyes: Flush eyes with lukewarm water for 10-15 minutes. Be very gentle, as vigorous or prolonged rinsing can hurt the eyes.

If vomiting is recommended by the Poison Control Center or your doctor, use only Syrup of Ipecac. Do not use anything else, and do not put your finger in the throat to cause gagging, which can cause more injury.

If advised to take the person to the hospital, bring the plant or a piece of it along with the label.

For a more extensive list of toxic and safe plants, see http://envhort.ucdavis.edu/ce/king/

About this information

This brochure was developed by Elise Stone, California Poison Control System, and Ann King Filmer, University of California Cooperative Extension.

Partially funded by the University of California Elvinia Slosson Fund. 1997.