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Catalog of Herbs
Published in James A. Duke, Handbook of Medicinal Herbs, 2018
Toxicity — Bark, leaves, and roots are reported to be toxic due to the presence of a toxalbumin, robin (1.6% in the bark). Toxic symptoms are suggestive of those associated with belladonna poisoning. Phasin is also very poisonous.33 Occasional cases of poisoning are on record in which boys have chewed the bark and swallowed the juice, the principal symptoms being dryness of the mouth and throat, burning pain in the abdomen, hypersomnia, dilation of the pupils, nausea, diarrhea, sometimes bloody, vertigo, muscular twitches, paleness, stupor, and shock; excessive quantities causing, also, weak and irregular heart action.2,33,36,56 Resistance to rot may be due to the wood containing 4% taxifolin, an isomer of dihydroquercetin, or dihydrorobinetin, a growth-inhibitor of wood-destroying fungi. The flower is said to contain the antitumor compound benzaldehyde. Some have classified the honey as toxic, others as the best of honeys.
Massive fatal overdose of abrin with progressive encephalopathy*
Published in Clinical Toxicology, 2020
B. Zane Horowitz, Rachel Castelli, Adrienne Hughes, Robert G. Hendrickson, Rudolph C. Johnson, Jerry D. Thomas
With the assistance of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention utilizing a quantitative HPLC-MS/MS assay they developed confirmed l-abrine in his urine 87 h after his ingestion. Simultaneously obtained serum samples showed that he had cleared l-abrine from his serum by this time. Documentation of the biomarker l-abrine in abrin ingestions is not usually reported. In only one prior human ingestion, a l-abrine urine concentration of 726 ng/ml (1.703 mcg l-abrine/mg creatinine) approximately 6 h after ingestion was reported [10]. This case involved a 22-month-old 11.5 kg female who chewed on a bracelet of 20 rosary (Abrus) peas and had a clinical course limited to gastrointestinal symptoms without neurologic manifestations. The limit of detection of this assay is 5–500 ng/ml for l-abrine, and it is set-up to test for ricinine as well [2,3]. l-abrine and ricinine are not the toxins responsible for symptoms of toxalbumin poisoning, but are biomarkers found in Abrus and Ricinus species, respectively [2,3].
Fatal abrin poisoning by injection
Published in Clinical Toxicology, 2021
Ginger R. Rinner, Sarah A. Watkins, Farshad Mazda Shirazi, Miguel C. Fernández, Greg Hess, Jason Mihalic, Susan Runcorn, Victor Waddell, Jana Ritter, Sarah Reagan-Steiner, Jerry Thomas, Luke Yip, Frank G. Walter
Autopsy features of abrin poisoning are rarely published. Post-mortem findings of fatal ingestions include gastrointestinal hemorrhage and edema, hepatorenal congestion, and cerebral edema [7]. By contrast, this patient’s autopsy showed localized injection site tissue damage with regional lymphatic effects and widespread vascular injury and thrombi in multiple tissues (Figure 3). This is comparable to autopsy findings in the notable case of Georgi Markov, who died via injection with the similar but less potent toxalbumin ricin [8].