English bluebell
General poisoning notes:
English bluebell (Endymion
non-scriptus) is an ornamental bulb plant that is grown outdoors and forced
indoors for its early spring flowers. This species was formerly included under
the genus Scilla. The plant contains glycosides, which are chemically
similar to the cardiac glycoside digitalis. Cattle, a horse, and humans were
poisoned after ingesting this plant. Children or family pets should be
prevented from chewing the plants (Cooper and Johnson 1984).
Nomenclature:
Scientific Name: Hyacinthoides nonscripta (L.)
Garcke
Vernacular
name(s): English bluebell
Scientific family
name: Liliaceae
Vernacular family
name: lily
Geographic Information
Plant or plant
parts used in or around the home.
Toxic parts:
All parts, bulbs, flowers,
leaves.
Notes on Toxic plant chemicals:
The plant contains
glycosides, generally termed scillarens, which are similar to the cardiac
glycoside digitalis (Cooper and Johnson 1984).
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:
Breathing,
shallow, heart rate, slow, lethargy, temperature, depressed.
Notes on poisoning:
A group of cows
and calves in Britain grazed on English bluebells and a few days later became
dull and lethargic, chewed intermittently, and produced hard, dry feces.
Temperature and respiration were decreased and heart beat became erratic.
Lactating cows became dry. Recovery was slow when the cows were removed from
the plants and given extra feed (Cooper and Johnson 1984).
Horses
General symptoms of
poisoning:
Abdominal
pains, diarrhea, skin, cold and moist, temperature, depressed, urination,
absent, vomiting.
Notes on poisoning:
A horse that ate
several bulbs of English bluebell became ill within 6 h. Symptoms included
initial choking, abdominal pain, slow pulse, low temperature, and cold, clammy
skin. Within 10 h the animal produced dark-colored diarrhea with blood and
ceased urinating. The horse recovered slowly, passing blood-stained urine for
several days (Cooper and Johnson 1984).
Humans
General symptoms of
poisoning:
Abdominal pains,
diarrhea, heart rate, slow, skin, flushed.
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