Keywords
toxicology
poisoning
bulb
root
rhizome
tuber
geophytes
Spain
Mediterranean region
How to Cite
Abstract
The incidence of the consumption of poisonous plants as a risk factor is a well-established fact in the field of environmental health. The main difficulty in dealing with this toxicological casuistry stems from the enormous diversity of plants, which requires prior systematization thereof to facilitate diagnosis by technical and health personnel. We found that there is no tool in western Andalusia that has been specifically designed for the identification of wild plants that can potentially lead to poisoning, especially when their toxic parts are buried underground. We conducted a review of common wild herbs having underground organs specialized in the accumulation of reserves (bulbs, tubers, rhizomes) of high toxicological potential. We selected twenty-one species as the most notable sources of intoxication: Urginea maritima, Narcissus jonquilla, N. assoanus, N. fernandesii, N. bujei, N. tazetta, N. papyraceus, Ornithogalum arabicum, Mandragora autumnalis, Carlina gummifera, Colchicum lusitanum, Merendera montana, M. filifolia, Aristolochia baetica, A. paucinervis, Ranunculus bulbosus, R. ficaria, Bryonia dioica, Oenanthe crocata, Conium maculatum and Arum italicum. We devised an action plan in the form of a dichotomous questionnaire to enable health and technical personnel to determine whether any of these plants can be behind certain intoxication symptoms. Its ultimate purpose is to facilitate the triage and diagnostic work in health care medicine and toxicological information services, to refine the systematization of toxicological casuistry for future environmental health research and to come up with an educational strategy aimed at avoiding this kind of environmental risk.
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