Chesneau Pierre, Knibiehly Marc, Tichadou Lucia, Calvez Mélanie, Joubert Michel, Hayek-Lanthois Maryvonne, De Haro Luc
Samu Guyane Française, Centre hospitalier Andrée Rosemon, Cayenne, French Guiana.
Clin Toxicol (Phila). 2009 Sep;47(8):830-3. doi: 10.1080/15563650903146818.
Several species of plants in the Fabaceae family are traditionally used for poison fishing because they contain ichthyotoxic rotenoids. In French Guiana two species of Fabaceae belonging to Lonchocarpus genus with a toxic rotenone effect are used for such ancestral practices. Rotenone is of low toxicity for humans when it is diluted, but its neurotoxicity at higher concentrations is well known to users.
The purpose of this article is to describe a case of self-poisoning by an 86-year-old woman who ingested a bowl of mashed ichthyotoxic plants. Despite early onset of severe symptoms, the patient regained consciousness and resumed normal breathing within a few hours with only symptomatic treatment.
The clinical pattern observed in this patient (onset of digestive manifestations followed quickly by loss of conscience and respiratory insufficiency) is in agreement with the few poisonings reported in the literature involving other Fabaceae species containing rotenoids in Asia or involving concentrated rotenone used in insecticides. In patients, who survive the initial phase, symptoms usually regress quickly.
