Poinsettia
General poisoning notes:
Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) is a popular Christmas plant grown for its red leafy bracts. It has been listed as a known toxic plant that has caused a loss of human life. The case cited in all literature is based on the death of a child in Hawaii who ingested a leaf of poinsettia. The author of that report said that the incident was based on hearsay (Stone and Collins 1971). Various studies have not found any of the toxic diterpenes that occur in the latex of other spurges (Euphorbia spp.). Extensive studies on rats that were fed "extraordinarily" high doses of poinsettia showed no mortality, no symptoms of toxicity, and no changes in normal behaviour (Stone and Collins 1971). Klug et al. (1990) reviewed 353 calls to poison control centres and found that nausea and vomiting were cited in 0.02% of the cases with rash and sneezing cited in 0.0028%. An older dog that ingested poinsettia reportedly experienced protracted vomiting, followed by renal failure, coma, and death. This is the only case in the literature of death to an animal. Case histories show that some humans develop a sensitivity to the latex, resulting in dermatitis. Short exposures to poinsettia in a few cases have led to bouts of vomiting, but no substantiated cases of death can be found in the literature. Poinsettia should no longer be regarded as a severely toxic plant.
Nomenclature:
Scientific Name: Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd. ex Klotzsch
Vernacular name(s): poinsettia
Scientific family name: Euphorbiaceae
Vernacular family name: spurge
Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd. ex Klotzsch
Geographic Information
Plant or plant parts used in or around the home.
Notes on Poisonous plant parts:
A few people have a positive reaction to the latex and to aqueous extracts of plant material (Santucci et al. 1985).
Toxic parts:
Latex, leaves, stems.
Notes on Toxic plant chemicals:
The latex does not contain any diterpenes. The plant contains an unidentified chemical, which causes dermatitis in a few sensitive individuals (Santucci et al. 1985).
Toxic plant chemicals:
unknown chemical
Animals/Human Poisoning:
Note: When an animal is listed without additional information, the literature (as of 1993) contained no detailed explanation.
Dogs
General symptoms of poisoning:
Coma, death, kidney failure, vomiting.
Humans
General symptoms of poisoning:
Eczema, nausea, vomiting.
Notes on poisoning:
The most severe symptoms of poinsettia ingestion substantiated in the literature are a few cases of nausea and vomiting, with an occasional rash (Klug et al. 1990).
