Garden-sorrel
General poisoning notes:
Garden-sorrel (Rumex acetosa) is a naturalized herb found across southern Canada. It is occasionally cultivated as a garden green. Ingesting large quantities of the plant caused toxicity in sheep and cattle in other countries. Humans should restrict their intake of the leaves of this plant because they contain oxalate crystals (Cooper and Johnson 1984).
Nomenclature:
Scientific Name: Rumex acetosa L.
Vernacular name(s): garden-sorrel
Scientific family name: Polygonaceae
Vernacular family name: knotweed
Rumex acetosa L.
Geographic Information
Alberta, British Columbia, Labrador, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova, Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan.
Notes on Poisonous plant parts:
Ingesting large amounts of the aboveground portion of garden-sorrel can cause poisoning (Cooper and Johnson 1984).
Toxic parts:
Leaves, stems.
Notes on Toxic plant chemicals:
Oxalates are considered the primary toxin. However, under certain circumstances, nitrates may accumulate to toxic levels. In recorded cases of poisoning, the symptoms were consistent with those of oxalate poisoning (Cooper and Johnson 1984).
Toxic plant chemicals:
Oxalate
Animals/Human Poisoning:
Note: When an animal is listed without additional information, the literature (as of 1993) contained no detailed explanation.
Cattle
General symptoms of poisoning:
Kidney failure
Notes on poisoning:
Reports of poisoning in cattle are inconsistent. Lactating cows that ingested large quantities of garden-sorrel showed symptoms similar to those of milk fever. Treatment with calcium had transient effects because of subsequent kidney failure (Cooper and Johnson 1984).
Sheep
General symptoms of poisoning:
Coma, death, incoordination, mouth, frothing of, pupil dilation, recumbency.
Notes on poisoning:
Ingesting large amounts of garden-sorrel caused toxicity in sheep in Britain. Symptoms included incoordination, falling, then inability to rise, dilation of the pupils, coma, and death (in five sheep). In lactating ewes, the initial signs resembled milk fever, but favorable response to calcium injection was transient because of kidney failure. No cases of poisoning from this plant have been reported in North America (Kingsbury 1964, Cooper and Johnson 1984).
