Got this notice from a lady at another garden club but is a warning ALL need to be aware of!!
"Angels Trumpets are toxic and we should not "ingest" and part of
these plants! However, read what happened to me!!!
My angels trumpets sent me to the emergency room today and I did not eat, drink or smoke any part of my plants!!!
I decided I would wash off my plants with a strong hosing of water to rid them of the caterpillars that are devouring them. My plants are about 6 feet tall (I am 5 foot tall) and as I hosed the plants off water dripped off the leaves into my hair and face.
I was also perspiring (Surprise in this heat!!!) and washed my left hand (which I had used to turn leaves or break off spent blooms) with the cool water from my hose and wiped my face. About 1/2 hour later when I came inside, I noticed my vision was
blurred and my eyes felt dry and burning. I assumed it was from the salt in my perspiration. Then I looked in the mirror and immediately became frightened. My pupils were huge!!! A friend drove me to the emergency room, where, thanks to a doctor
who not only owns angels trumpets but has a keen interest in toxic plants, I was diagnosed immediately with atropine poisoning.
Here were (and are) my symptoms:
blurred vision, dilated pupils, extreme thirst, headache, dizziness (I'm blond so didn't think that was unusual!!), slight nausea, rapid pulse, and elevated blood pressure (mine was 168 over 86). Symptoms last from 1 to 3 days. Apparently
I was not poisoned sufficiently enough to warrant any other treatment than to be told to wear dark glasses and go home. (Still have blurred vision, burning dry eyes and a headache.)
So please be very careful around your angel trumpets!!! Let the caterpillars eat them and leave spent blooms alone. I called or spoke to some of my friends and neighbors who have them and then decided to email as many people as I could. Please spread the word."
I wouldn't stop growing this plant regardless; however precautions CAN be taken to prevent these things from happening in MOST cases.
1) research all plants you plan to grow so you are aware of any and all things concerning them
2) wear gloves--in this case I would not think even long, rubber gloves too much
3) wash with soap and hot/warm water after contact with leaves, sap, etc for ANY plant---better safe than sorry?!!
I find Datura (Thorn Apple/Angel's Trumpet) to have an unpleasant scent to the leaves, blossoms and all parts so when I grew one last year I always either wore gloves or washed with soap and water as soon as possible after contact with these--and the same with my gourd vines. Such smelly plants!! hehehe I MUCH prefer Brugmansia to Datura but some Datura's have very lovely flowers as well!!
Bonnie : )
Angel's Trumpets (I believe referring to Datura) Warning!!
That's a scary story Bonnie, thanks for the reminder.
Any time I give a friend one of my plants, I always tell them about not letting the leaves brush against their face and not to touch their eyes after handling the plants, but it never occurred to me about the water run-off. I'm always hosing mine down, either for mites or just to add moisture to the foliage, then I go between them picking off yellow leaves or picking up dropped leaves.
What a story!!! Thanks for the warning and the advice.
Yes thanks, I alway pinch off all yellow or broken leaves, and never worry about anything. Surprise I'm not DEAD. I knew they were toxic but I thought you had to eat them or something. I better start wearing some gloves. Cause I will break off the leaves and maybe it will be a hour or two before I make it into the house, then I may not wash my hands until after a potty break, or if I am going to eat. Thanks again for the warning.
Linda
WOW - close call!!! I have also been told that when you cut a branch/trunk of a Brug to avert your eyes so that a squirt of the juice doesn't get in them.
I wonder how close I have come as I have NOT been careful, thinking it only ingestion that would diss me. I can see where sweat running down one's face could be a culprit as I wipe it off with my shirt front which is covered with the "touchings".....
Thanks so much for your story!!!
Carol
Bonnie it is on all boards it is brugs. says.. i handle leaves maybe the burning of eyes are correct.. will pay more attention now..
Twyla
Yikes! I wish we knew for sure if she had been hosing off Daturas or Brugmansias.
I remember a couple years ago when Susie got some of the fluid of a brugmansia in her eye and it became very dilated. I am not for sure but I think she was taking cuttings from over head. It seems that someone else from the brug forum also got brug fluid in their eye, but I can't remember who it was. Since then, I have always been careful about cuttings and breaking leaves off and also wiping my eyes before washing my hands. I think the fluid of the brug is the main cause for dilation but I am not positive.
BrugNanny,
That may have been me!
It was a couple of years ago when I first started growing brugs, and one day, I came into the house not knowing what was wrong with my eyes.
Being naive about brugs, I immediately washed my hands, forearms, and then, got a clean wash cloth and dabbed it in hot soapy water and washed my face, gently.
I flushed out my eyes with an eye washer with warm water, and that helped a lot. Took a few days before I was back to normal.
Lesson well learned, and I always tell anyone I offer my cuttings to that as beautiful as these brugs are, they are just as toxic.......
I use the disposable plastic gloves, along with wearing sunglasses.
Don't want to experience that again!
Gracie
Happened to me too. Luckily it was a lite dose but I had to go to work the next day looking like I was on drugs, lol!
Its happened to me a few times
I don't even notice cause I thought it was allergies....
till people said
Whats wrong with your eye girl?....LOL
I even got outa work early one day when they saw my eye
of course they pee tested me once a month for 8 months after that....
it goes away by the next day
If I didn't know it could happen I probably would have panicked,(had remembered it happening to Susie)but I'd just throw on some shades and went thru my day as normal
Seems to me that it matters little which one it was since both CAN cause similar symptoms!! Since nothing was ingested these symptoms were NOT fatal--Thank God!! However it seems pretty serious to me that you cannot see well, walk well or handle objects well for 2-3 days!! Though dead is definitely worse. To die you would need a VERY strong poisoning externally or to ingest any part of the plant. We just need to be reminded occasionally that things are not always as they seem--such as we are mortal and life is a fragile balance!! It is a gift of God, not something OWED to us!! So---just be careful. Like I said, to be informed on each plant you grow as much as possible is to be forewarned and armed!! Bonnie
Bonnie...thank you for sharing your experience with us...Although I am aware and try hard to wash after handling....I could use the reminder!!!
Bonnie...did the doctor mention any antidote? Or what to do when it gets in your eyes?
I've had a few bouts of brug eye, lol. I think all you can do is rinse it out and wait for your eye to return to normal.
I dont remember how long it took, but it wasnt too awfully long. Maybe a day?
I dont do daturas, so my brug eye came from the brugs.
This did not happen to me so I couldn't tell you what the doctor said. I got this message "through the grapevine" from another group where the lady who posted it had gotten it from elsewhere, etc, etc. Sorry!! I assume there MUST be an antidote of some kind but from what the message said mostly all the doc could do for her eyesight was to thoroughly rinse the eyes and just let them come back normal on their own?? Sorry I can't be of more help. Perhaps ask your doctor what can be done for Atropine poisoning/contact?? And let us know if you find out?? PLEASE! Thanks!! Bonnie
I got Atropine squirted in my eye once. Felt weird, but wore off slowly. I was in the ICU minding my own business giving a patient a breathing treatment for her asthma, when the patient in the next bed had a crisis. The nurse was giving IV Atropine Push and didn't have the needle in the valve all the way. As she rushed to get it in the valve it squirted out across the bed to where I was standing. I rinsed it out right away but not before it had a chance to dialate my right eye pretty good. All's well that ends well, and my eye was fine.
Mary
I went through simular thing but not near as severe as you, I had watered my Brugs, and was perspiring, and just brushed the back of my hand across my forhead, about an hour later I was seing like sparkle lines in my vision, after about two hours I decided to call my eye doctor, told him what I had done in the last four hours, and he said right away it was the poison in the brugs, and that it would go away after several hours, but could have been much worse, so be aware, and keep hands away from the eyes
I've gotten brug juice in my eye a few times. It dialates your eye and makes it sensitive to light for about 18-24 hours. I rinsed my eye out as soon as the juice got in it, but it still dialated the pupil. I think atropine is what the doctor uses to dialate your pupils with when he does an eye exam. I had an eye injury once and they gave me an ointment to use. It had atropine in it, and it dialated my eye, but it relieved pain too.
I had a 14 x 40 ft greenhouse packed full of brugs when I lived in TN. I worked with them every day, took cuttings, trimmed leaves, grabbed bundles of leaves and carried them to the trash pile, hosed down leaves and I never got sick from touching them. I always washed my hands and any exposed skin after working in the brugs. I suppose if one rubbed the leaves against their bare skin, it would make one sick.
Carol, atropine is an antidote for some poisons, don't know what they would use for an overdose of it though!