POISONOUS PLANT

Hokitika Guardian, 13 June 1931, Page 6

POISONOUS PLANT

- CAUSING SKIN TROUBLE. FOUR AUCKLAND CASES. Four cases of skin poisoning in Auckland have been traced to a very popular garden shrub, humea eKgaiis, commonly known as the incense plant.

One typical case was that, of a woman who is very fond of the plant. She liu'l been ill I'm- a long time, hut not knowing the earns.' used still to smell the incense plant whenever she was well enough to leave her room. Three or four hours afterwards a fever invariably followed, and thus the idnntifi-aUon of the plant as the origin of the trouble was established. The doctor treated three other cases in which the symptoms were the same, a bloated condition of the face and hands, and unbearable pain tn the swollen parts. The plant, which has caused the trouble in Auckland, is a native of New South Wales and Victoria, but is now very common in Auckland, ft is a robust, erect biennial, live to seven feet high and strongly scented. The flower heads are very numerous in a large, loose panicle, with gracefully pendulous branches. The (lowers are copper-coloured. It belongs to the daisy family, and is included in a genus of four species all restricted to Australia.

At the museum no other recorded eases of skin trouble caused bv this plant cam he found, and -it appears tliat only those with Very sensitive skins are affected.

The toxic property of the plant has been called coumarin, and has the chemical formula 0911602. It lias a pleasant aromatic odour, and is soluble in alcohol. This property is made use of by the German winemakers, who steep the woodruff (asprrula odorafa), a plant v I del i also conta.ins coumarin. in white wine, to which it imparts the pleasant odour of the drug. The product is thru known as Maiwrin. Other plants containing coumarin are used in the manufacture! of scents. Although coumarin has bre.n isolated .in a wide range of plants, only a lew of these have been directly responsible for the illness or death o! live stock, : iv in most forms :t is rnt ivlv inert. 'The sweet clover of Europe, however, has been suspected of poisoning animals, causing a paralysis of the muscle. :