Morning glory
General poisoning notes:
Hallucinations are the predominant effect after ingesting morning glory seeds. Ingesting 200-300 seeds produces an effect equivalent to 300 micro g of LSD. Vivid visual and tactile hallucinations, as well as increased awareness of colors have been described. Symptoms include facial flushing, nausea, mydriasis, diarrhea, and hypotension (Spoerke and Smolinske 1990). Ipomoea tricolor has a long history of use as a human hallucinogen in southern Mexico, where the seeds were used in the preparation of a drink (Fuller and McClintock 1986). A single undocumented case of poisoning of a pet cat (after ingestion of seeds) has come to our attention. The cat showed erratic behavior and "looked like a lunatic". There was no apparent permanent damage afterwards. Several cultivars of Ipomoea tricolor are available in Canadian garden catalogs for home gardeners and, with few exceptions, no mention is made of any potential toxic affects from ingesting the seeds of these plants. Sample cultivars are ''Heavenly Blue'', ''Pearly Gates'', and ''Scarlet O''Hara''. The total alkaloid content is shown to vary, depending on the cultivar grown. It is advisable to remove and destroy the fruiting parts as they develop to avoid ingestion by children or pets.
Nomenclature:
Vernacular name(s): morning glory
Scientific family name: Ipomoea tricolor
Vernacular family name: morning-glory
Ipomoea tricolor
Geographic Information
Plant or plant parts used in or around the home.
Notes on Poisonous plant parts:
The embryo of the seeds, and not the shell, contains the toxic chemicals. Ingesting 200-300 seeds can cause problems in adult humans (Spoerke and Smolinske 1990).
Toxic parts:
Seeds
Notes on Toxic plant chemicals:
The seed embryos contain several indole alkaloids that have hallucinogenic activity. These include d-lysergic acid amide (0.035%), d-isolysergic acid amide (0.005%), and elymoclavine (0.005%). The total alkaloid content varies with different plant cultivars. For instance, the cultivar ''Pearly Gates'' had 0.041%, whereas ''Scarlet O''Hara'' had 0.002% total alkaloids (Spoerke and Smolinske 1990).
Toxic plant chemicals:
D-isolysergic acid amide, D-lysergic acid amide, elymoclavine.
Animals/Human Poisoning:
Note: When an animal is listed without additional information, the literature (as of 1993) contained no detailed explanation.
Cats
General symptoms of poisoning:
Pupil dilation
Notes on poisoning:
In an undocumented case, a pet cat was attracted to the fruiting capsule of a morning glory vine growing on an apartment balcony. The dry fruiting capsule contained seeds that rattled in the wind. The cat ate an unknown quantity of seeds and later was noted to run around chasing nothing. It meowed a lot and its eyes did not appear to focus on anything. The owner remarked that the cat "looked like a lunatic". There were no apparent lasting symptoms.
Humans
General symptoms of poisoning:
Blood pressure, low, diarrhea, hallucination, nausea, pupil dilation.
Notes on poisoning:
In one reported case of deliberate ingestion of 250 seeds of morning glory, a 20-year-old women developed inappropriate responses and weeping. The pupils were dilated, the face flushed, and hyper- active reflexes were noted. After 5 h, anxiety, and increased awareness of colors was recorded, but without hallucinations. Diarrhea was noted after 9 h. Hypotension occurred intermittently. After 2 days most of the symptoms had disappeared, with the exception of dilated pupils and increased deep tendon reflexes (Spoerke and Smolinske 1990).
