Avocado-Persea americana Mill.-Poisonous plant

Avocado

General poisoning notes:

Avocado (Persea americana) is a common exotic fruit. The seeds are often planted to produce foliage plants in households. In California, Guatemalan cultivars have caused toxic affects in cattle, goats, rabbits, canaries, and fish. Family pets should be prevented from ingesting the leaves. The seeds have caused toxicity and death in canaries and have experimentally poisoned mice. Leaves should not be allowed to fall accidentally into fish tanks (Hurt 1943, Fuller and McClintock 1986).

Nomenclature:

Scientific Name: Persea americana Mill.

Vernacular name(s): avocado

Scientific family name: Lauraceae

Vernacular family name: laurel

Geographic Information

Plant or plant parts used in or around the home.

Notes on Poisonous plant parts:

Ingesting the leaves, branches, or seeds has caused lung congestion and udder inflammation (Fuller and McClintock 1986).

Toxic parts:

Leaves, seeds, twigs

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.

Cattle

General symptoms of poisoning:

Mastitis

Notes on poisoning:

Ingesting avocado leaves and bark has caused lung congestion, mastitis, tissue edema, milk reduction, and death (when large quantities of leaves were consumed). Other mammal species that were poisoned after ingesting avocado showed similar symptoms (Hurt 1943).

Goats

General symptoms of poisoning:

Mastitis

Rabbits

General symptoms of poisoning:

Death, death by asphyxiation, mastitis

Notes on poisoning:

Rabbits were poisoned when given access to avocado leaves. The rabbits developed mastitis and dried up. Experimental feeding of "Fuerte," a Guatemalan avocado cultivar, has caused poisoning and death in rabbits. Mexican cultivars have not caused poisoning (Hurt 1943, Appleman 1944).