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Abstract
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Within 30 minutes after sharing a meal, one Los Angeles woman and two men became ill with symptoms of visual disturbance, headache and weakness. The men experienced nausea and vomiting, also. The woman was taken immediately to her private physician, who stated that, at the time he saw her, her eyes were dilated and that she had no blood pressure. He pronounced her dead. The two men were hospitalized at Los Angeles County General Hospital, overnight.
The meal consisted of roast beef, fried potatoes, and greens (allegedly Texas mustard greens cooked with "poke salad" and pork skins). Because of the sudden death, Los Angeles City Police Department detectives investigated this case. They found samples of cooked greens in the garbage can and sent them to the coroner's office. A sample of these cooked greens, submitted to the State Department of Agriculture, revealed not only mustard greens but Nicotiana glauca as well.
Upon further investigation, one of the victims' father (who did not eat the suspected meal) was asked to describe "poke salad". The father identified a plant growing in his neighbor's yard, which was described by a Department of Agriculture expert as "poke weed" (Phytolacca americana). He was also shown a specimen of N. glauca (tree tobacco leaves), which were also growing in the vicinity of the house. He stated positively that he had seen these leaves and not "poke weed" on the back porch next to the Texas mustard greens, which had been purchased at a local market. It was not certain whether the deceased, who cooked the meal, picked the tree tobacco or was given the leaves by a well-meaning, but misguided friend.
At autopsy, coronary arteriosclerosis was present, but was not suspected as the immediate cause of death.
(Reported by Dr. Philip K. Condit, Chief, Bureau o/ Com- municable Diseases, California State Department of Health, and F. A. Listick, Sanitarian, Los Angeles City Health Department.)
Editor's Note: N. glauca is a member of the family Solanaceae, nicknamed the nightshade family. It contains the alkaloid anabasine, thus distinguishing it from the other nicotiana plants, all of which contain nicotine.
N. glauca is native to Argentina but has been naturalized in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, where it grows primarily as a weed. Nearly all members of this family are poisonous be- cause of the alkaloids which are contained in their green parts. Other members of the family include Datura stramonium, the jimson weed, and Atropa belladonna. The potato and tomato are about the only edible members of this family.
N. glauca has been implicated in cattle poisoning on several occasions in California.
Anabasine is an isomer of nicotine, and is identical with synthetic neonicotine, according to Sollman's "Manual of Pharmacology," 18th Edition, p. 457. Like nicotine, it first stimulates, then depresses the autonomic ganglia. It has about one-fifth to one-third the potency of nicotine. |