Please use care when handlinNot so fond of daturas & brugmansias anymore. The other morning I started very early to trim here and there in the garden the brugs are overgrown with the rainy season so I trimmed, made lots of cuttings stripping with my hand the leaves.
I ended in the Hospital, due to blurry vision and the pupil on one of my eyes was totally dilated. I did not suffer fortunately form any heart problems nor vomiting.
I certainly went through some kind of panic attack took two Xanax plus the brug juice through the skin, felt really drowsy. A friend took me to the ER, thinking I was going to have a stroke or.....Although I've read over the years about the poisonous properties of the Solanacea family, well, I did not expect this to happen through my skin. So, please pass this on to the gardeners you know. It was quite scary. Thanks G I only suffered minor dry mouth, pupil dilatation and minor side effects.
Something to be aware of it, when working with Daturas and Brugs
"Gardener's Mydriasis" was reported in a 54 year old male who complained of blurred vision after cutting Angel's Trumpet, Datura suaveolens, in his garden...
"Cornpicker's Pupil" is another presentation of mydriasis after exposure during harvesting.(2)
CLINICAL EFFECTS
The mnemonic for clinical effects of typical atropine poisoning is: "blind as a bat, mad as a hatter, red as a beet, hot as a hare, dry as a bone, the bowel and bladder lose their tone, and the heart runs alone." Symptoms include mydriasis; cycloplegia; flushed, warm, dry skin; dry mouth; ileus; urinary retention; tachycardia; hyper or hypotension; delirium with hallucinations; jerky, myoclonic movements; choreoathetosis; hyperthermia; coma; respiratory arrest; rare seizures; and central stimulation followed by depression.(5,7) Hallucinations are reported in as many as 83% of cases; typically they are simple visual images in natural colors, but infrequently also tactile hallucinations of crawling insects.(2)
The onset of symptoms occurs within 30 to 60 minutes after smoking leaves or drinking tea; and 1-4 hours after ingestion of plant material or seeds.(4) Initial symptoms include dry mouth then pupil dilatation.(2) The duration of symptoms is often 24-48 hours because of delayed gastrointestinal motility; symptoms have been reported to last up to 1-2 weeks.(4,5) Although poisoning may lead to fatal medullary paralysis, arrhythmias and cardiovascular collapse,(8) Jimson Weed-related deaths mainly are as a result of impaired judgment and coordination resulting in risk-taking activities associated with accidental death.(1,2)
regards
isabel
g Brugs & Dats!
From my friend in Fl, a Warning!
Isabel,
Thank you so much for taking the time to share this information with those who may not realize what could happen when handling these beautiful plants.
I hope you're ok now, I know that must have been very scary for you. Wearing gloves is always a must and don't get that juice in your eyes...washing your hands after handling even taking leaves off of the bush/tree of a brug is even a must in my opinion. Never can be safe :-)
Hugs & Thanks for caring,
Julie
After 8 years of handling brugs I can honestly say I've never heard of a case where someone got sick because brug juice was absorbed thru the skin. Doesn't mean it has never happened to anyone ever. Just never heard of such a case. Rashes are more common but still rare.
Brug juice in the eye is very common when you prune brugs for whatever reason. Never heard of vomiting or heart attacks because of it. Anxiety attacks yes! !!!! lol!
Flushing the eye with water and about 12 takes normally takes care of the eye problem. Figuring out you're not gonna die from it normally cures the anxiety attack problem. :)
Wearing gloves and protective goggles are good protection if you do not feel safe around your brugs..
Sounds terrible. I hope you are feeling OK now. A few people have had problems this year. I guess I should be more careful. I usually wear gloves for all but not for yellow leaf picking. I go down the rows snapping like crazy. I do wash my hands after though. Maybe that saves me.
Take care!!
Does anyone else have a horror story about brug juice and skin or eye contact? Rashes or itches, burns, swelling, hallucinations and stuff like that?
What did you do when it happened to you?
Did you see a doctor and what did he say?
Do you wear protective gear when handling your brugs?
I know this from reading once somewhere on this forum that 'Cleopatra' used to do it purposely so that she would have those huge pupils she had. She loved the look...weird eh? I'm wearing safety glasses and rubber gloves if I ever take the hankering to cut some brugs up! I always think safety first! lol learned that from working at a Nuke Plant for years !
Guess I've been lucky. I usually wear long sleeve cotton shirt and long pants to keep the bugs (mosquitoes have been real bad) from biting. I also carry a grocery bag with me when I'm cleaning up yellow leaves and dropped blooms. I don't put this in my compost, but dispose of it. I try not to let the leaves brush against my face but it's a jungle out there now. I'm not a glove wearer, but I am a hand washer and when I finish in the garden, I remove my "garden clothes".
These plant's would probably be more widespread if it weren't for the fact they are what my DGM considered "Loco Weed".
If a horse or cow ate it, they usually "Put them down". No bird-planted plant or vine was allowed to grow.
There is another account of washing aphids off of a tall Datura that also sent a DGer to the ER only to luckily have a Dat/Brug savvy doctor diagnose her.
sidney
Julie! You worked for a Nuke Plant? Which one? I spent 12 years of my life building digitial radiation monitoring systems for Nuke Plants. It was a great job.
Cleopatra must be a character! lol!
Hey Julie, was it SRS??
Sugarweed, the person that washed off the aphids and had to go to the Dr? What symptoms did she have? Was it eye or skin? both?
Both, maybe they will see this and speak up. I know they are an illegal plant in some counties in Florida because the "drugies" like all of those symptoms. I have noticed my spent blooms dissappear on the ones next to the street. The less publicity these "effects" get, the better. I tell anyone that ask, "Only an IDIOT would purposely injest these.
sidney
As far as I know Maitland is the only FL county that bans brugs and dats. Are there more?
..........................edited to say Maitland is a city not a county.
Just wondering what the normal grower (non druggie) experience has been to handle the plants. If you gathered together every brug grower everyone of us has known thru the years it would be in the thousands by now. How many of them have suffered so badly from touching brugs that they'll never grow them again? How many real horror stories have we heard? Not about drugs but about living our daily lives with the plants themselves. New growers should be certainly be aware of the bad personal experiences but they also should be encouraged to not be afraid to touch that beautiful leaf or flower.
Respect brugs? yes Fear them? no.
This message was edited Aug 18, 2005 10:45 AM
After spending 28 yrs in northern AZ as an ER nurse, I am well versed in the dreaded "jimson weed" (datura,which grows everywhere).
Folks have dried, chewed, brewed and everything else with this stuff. I have seen teens and adults alike die from their reactions. While this is not the norm, it does happen.
Others get very violently ill with some pretty ugly symptoms. Mind you, probably 99% of the cases I have seen were where the plant was actually ingested or smoked.
BUT...there have been cases where (in the very highly sensitive) the patient had only skin exposure and got very ill.
My knowledge of brug exposure/symptoms is zilch. But I do suspect that in the very highly sensitive, caution is a must.
Thank you everyone for the information on this post. I was
aware brugs were considered poisonious but did not know to what extent. I am going to have to rethink where I keep my brugs and how I handle them. I have horses and that would be a bad combination if they got out and decided to munch on them.
You are most welcome.
;)
There has certainly been alot of drug horror stories thru the years. I wish that part would go away so I can grow brugs in my front yard without fear of them being eaten by a human. It really irks me lol!
Thank goodness I'm not sensitive to brugs.
Datura is another story that I don't have much first hand experience with. Not one of my favorites. It was a noxious weed on our property in TN. Locals hated it mostly because of the damage the seed pods could do to cattle feet.
Brugs should not be feared anymore than Rhubarb leaves, Monks Hood, Daffodil bulbs and many other poisonous plants we have growing in our gardens.
I plant my Brug seedlings in rows and have to brush against them everytime I water.
I strip the leaves and spent flowers with no gloves but always wash my hands when I am done as I would with any plant.
My two GC(8&4) have grown up with Brugs and have learned from the start that they are poisonous and NOT to eat them.
They have their very own plants growing at home this year and care for them themselves.
They both know to not rub their eyes while handling them and to wash their hands after handling.
We have never suffered any bad affects from them and except for the occasional Brug eye I haven't heard of any growers having such bad experiences.
Maybe these few that were affected had an allergy to atropine and if that is the case should be sure to tell their eye doctor next time they need to have their pupils dilated.
I imagine those seed pods could do some damage. I tried a few this year and I guess I'm not a night garden person so sometimes I see a bloom that is left early in the morning, unfortunately, I work and don't get in the back yard many week day mornings. I probably won't do them again next year (and I'm trying to keep the seed pods harvested), I just don't have enough room for everything.
I had 'Black Currant Swirl' last year and they have the smooth seed pod. I planted some again this year but they have not bloomed yet. I like their foliage better than the white one.
When I first started growing brugs and dats in my nursery I was constantly harrassed by the AG dept inspectors that came twice a year. They always suggested (with a smile) that I destroy all of my plants because it was all just considered to be datura. It used to infuriate me to try to make them understand that brugs and dats are not the same. To this very day when someone compares the two for common faults I bristle like a porcupine lol!
I hate it when I try to convince someone to try growing brugmansia and they immediately say "no! I've only heard bad stuff about that plant". They look at you like you must be a drug crazed monster!!
Terry I couldn't have said better. Thanks for your input.
Linda can you imagine stepping on one of those thorny dat seed pods? It must be so painful. Glad I'm not a cow in TN. .... or anywhere else for that matter! .. ha!
I grew a greenhouse packed full of brugs, from wall to wall, floor to ceiling. I would cut the brugs, the juice would get on my arms, face, hands...........the only time I ever had trouble was when the juice got in my eye. It stayed dialated for about 24 hours. I went to the doctor both times it happened, he washed my eye out with saline and said it would wear off.
Brugmansia contain atropine, the same drug the eye doctor uses to dialate your eye.
I have grown brugs for 14 years and have cut and carried arms full of brug stems and leaves from where I cut them off to the compost pile, they've never made me sick, high or given me a rash. At one time I had about 1000 brug plants.
I think I read somewhere that Cleopatra used belladonna(another plant that contains atropine) to dialate her eyes.
Like Terry said, there are lots of poisonous plants. We lost some goats once from eating daffodill leaves and lost a calf once from eating rhodendron leaves. I read about an elderly couple that thought they were picking comfrey leaves, but instead they had foxglove leaves. They made a tea from the leaves and they died before they got the whole cup drank. Best advice, if you don't know it's edible, don't put it in your mouth!
And when she says her greenhouses were packed ... believe it! You could not help but rub your face in the leaves just to get around. Thank you Susie!
After I read the first account this summer I have begun to be MUCH more aware. With the humidity and heat I tend to wipe my face a lot with my shirt/hands etc. I now carry a 'clean' rag for that...
Some folks may be just not as affected...some more. Something to be aware of, tho'.
Carol
The goats ate the daffodils story reminds me of a certain bird named Elliott that peeled and ate 20 brug seeds and never even got heartburn. I still giggle over that one lol!
Vicki & Linda, it was Dept. of Energy, Westinghouse Savannah River Site (SRS or WSRC) Same thing where I worked. :-) I worked in several area's there over the years. I started as a Secretary for the 4 Fire Stations, then started 12.5 hour shift over in a controlled area where we issued Procedures to those that worked in the field, Engineers, Operators and etc...Our building was where they contain the waste from Tritium. Dept. of Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) I loved it! I'm like you Vicki, it was the best job I ever had. Then there was a RIFT...reduction in force. Take the package (Money) or take your chances lol...I took the first and moved out to the desert in Oklahoma LOL....
Vicki, I say respect the brug but not to fear them. Being educated about the flower and know the dangers of the plant. Use common sense in prevent anything from harming you or your animals such as cats & kittens... take into consideration all of the reasons why or why not to have a pet when one is considering having a pet or or have one already before planting brugs. That's what I would do :-)
I googled it and found these sites
Harmful plants to Cats and Humans
http://www.fabcats.org/hiddendangersofplants.html
Recreational drug & medicinal reasons?
http://www.angelfire.com/realm/shades/plants/datura.htm
I'm sure I've seen thing it did to cats on this forum here at DG and also the eye's of members too, just have to find them.
No one's suggesting we quit growing them and they do sell them at the nurseries. Just don't be complacent about their juice. I love all ten of mine although I haven't a clue as to what their names are. They came from good stock and they make me giggle when I SEE them bloom.
;)
Animals are not normally attracted to brugs. My cats have always played in brug pots and up brug trees, and clawed the bark till you just want to cut their little feet off, played with fresh harvested seeds and seed pods, played with cuttings on the kitchen table.
My dog Pete used to steal my unrooted brug cuttings right out of the pots and play with them.
My Dad used to battle with squirrels because they loved to eat his brug seed pods.
If you had told me that a bird could eat 20 brug seeds and not die from it I would have called you crazy.
My grandbabies have never shown an interest in brugs. It never crossed their minds to eat plants and we never had to teach them to stay away from them. Anything green looks like broccolli to my babies. lol! They sure don't want to eat anything green!
I've gotten the juice in my eye many times but never suffered because of it. I never wash my hands when I handle brugs. I am definitely not sensitive to brugs. I have no bad reports. I hope there will always be more people with my same positive experience than with bad experiences.
Yes Vicki, Elliot ate that batch of seeds, peeled them and ate the middle(he also ate a caligraphy pen and turned blue, but that's another story, lol).
We had a bunny that ate brug leaves and one winter I tried rooting brugs in the garage in buckets of water. I couldn't figure out why the buckets were always dry till I saw the cats drinking the water! Of course I wouldn't recommend humans drink brug water or eat the leaves or flowers or rub the juice on their skin, but versions of the first post(identical except for a few words that have been changed) have been floating around for years. Someone posted one a few weeks ago best I can remember.
Felder Rushing wrote a article on the subject. If I can find it I'll try to post a link. There are MANY plants that are not intended to be eaten. Even the tomato leaf is poisionus but the fruit is not.
this has been really good reading....I went to a craft show the other day and saw a "so weard" looking bush and brought it home...a devils trumpt is what it was called. When I started to research about it, I was blown away!! But still I love this plant, and want to grow some more. Does anyone know a good way to get them to grow. Can I take a cutting anduse a root hormone to get them to root, or is by the seeds the only way to make babies of this strainge little cutie. I'm new at this gardening thing,but reallly got something going on that's really different from the others in my neighborhood. Kind of a secret garden thing with lots of faries that I'v painted. This plant is so perfect for what I'm doing...an the neighbors love it. I'm going to try to look for some other things like this and sudjustions would be a plus if anyone can think of so ideals. This is only for affect!!! Not to get a buzz!!!! I can get that just by being out in my garden....natures cool!!!
What about composting the leaves? Should they NOT be put with the regular compost?
A couple of years ago, I had blurry vison as a result of rubbing my eyes after trimmng some brugs. but it went away after a while. I realized that washing your hands after pruning is a must.
Welcome baddreams, you will have to have some Brugs too and some of the new wild colored Coleus.
Good luck
;)
hi sugarweed....I'm not understanding what your post ment....are you sending me some lol...I started this garden when my only daughter passed away(very unexpectedly) 2 years ago....guess that I'm still crazy...guess I'll stay that way....may be that's why I don't understand you post...but thanks for the welcome......got a warm and fuzzy.....happy day if this pic comes thu ok this is a pic I found that looks just like her....kind of weard that it's a fairy garden that I'm doing. She was always making wings, and was such a hippy chick...and no it wasn't a O.D if ya wondered....so any way ....on with the adventure!!!!
I had no clue tomato leaves are poisonous, Linda. That is scary!
Welcome ot Dave's, Baddreams. I think you may have a datura. There is a datura forum on this site with lots of pictures. I do not know much about them but I think they are more gown as annuals and proagated by seed for they make lots of it easily. I am so sorry for your great loss. It must be so terrible for you.
Lali, the reason I would not add it to a compost pile is in case it has the dreaded SB. You could have it and not know for up to 2 years, I think. I would not want to spread it all over my yard. I have no clue if it could spread this way, but I have the fear of God in me over it. Does anyone know if Phoma and fungal diseases can be spread like that?
I need to teach my parrot to peel my brug seeds too Susie. What a great thign that would be if he didn't then eat them. LOL .
I had the exact same thing happen to me today. I spent about 3 hours in the gh cleaning, cutting, moving, and I began to feel funny. After a little while it got worse and my vision was blurring so I got worried. I took a look in the mirror here is what I saw. I can say I didn't believe it was possible to absorb enough through the skin until today. Still feel a little funny and the eye is still the same. Oh well, live and learn. I'm glad that it didn't make me seriously sick.
Wow, nicely dialated! Reminds me of the time I got Atropine squirted in my eye when the nurse on the other side of the bed was trying to put it in IV Push and didn't have the needle cleanly in the valve. Felt weird, but no lasting damage.
Mary
My niece did the same thing and fortunately my daughter called me to say that Jamie might have a brain tumor and would have to take a MRI. I asked for details and told my daughter to call her immediately and tell her she doesn't have a brain tumor, she has 'brug eye'. I've given Jamie rootings all year and cautioned her but something got in her eye and hurt and her hand was in her eye before she realized what she was doing, but she didn't relate it to the brugs, she thought whatever was in her eye caused it. Well, it was brug eye and Jamie now keeps Germ-X in her pocket - I keep Germ-X several places outside for emergencies, ya never know...