Pyrrolizidine alkaloidosis

[1] Pyrrolizidine alkaloidosis can result in damage to the liver, kidneys, heart, brain, smooth muscles, lungs, DNA, lesions all over the body, and could be a potential cause of cancer.

[5][6] Pyrrolizidine alkaloidosis is caused by the consumption of one or more of the 200 known plant species containing the toxic pyrrolizine alkaloids found all over the world today.

[1][7] Echites umbellatus, belonging to the dogbane family Apocynaceae and having the English common name Devil's potato, has recently been found to contain lycopsamine-type pyrrolizidine alkaloids.

The most common reports are the outcome of the misuse of medicinal home remedies, or the alkaloids are present in food and drink substances such as milk and honey when the animal carriers were exposed to the toxins.

In other countries, mass human poisonings have occurred when cereal crops used were contaminated with seeds containing pyrrolizidine alkaloids.

[5][9][10][11] Infants and young children are most likely to acquire pyrrolizidine alkaloidosis because of their intrinsic nature to put everything they find into their mouths.

[5] The severity of pyrrolizidine alkaloidosis depends on how much of the poisonous plant was consumed in a height, age, and weight to the amount of substance ingested ratio.

Symptoms include:[2][5][9][12] To stop the spread and severity of pyrrolizidine alkaloidosis the first step is to remove the poisonous plant from the source.

Before hay cutting in the spring is the optimal time frame for annual herbicide applications which have also enhanced the destruction of the alkaloids.