Medico-Legal Update
  • Year: 2013
  • Volume: 13
  • Issue: 1

Jatropha Curcas Poisoning in a Group of Agricultural Labourer

  • Author:
  • Sreedhar Reddy S, Roop Kumar KM, Sudhakar S, Mahesh G, Murugesa Bharathi O, Uday Pal Singh
  • Total Page Count: 4
  • Page Number: 155 to 158

Department of Forensic Medicine, Mamata Medical College, Khammam, Andhra Pradesh, India

Online published on 2 July, 2013.

Abstract

Jatropha curcas belongs to the Euphorbiaceae family and is found in the coastal areas of tropics. There are few reported cases of its poisoning in pediatric and in adults; we have not come across mass accidental poisoning among the agricultural farmers in literature. However, we found a group of 18 agricultural labourers affected by the poisoning of its seeds, who presented with complaints of vomiting, colicky abdominal pain, giddiness and diarrhea with in few minutes and reported to the casualty in a couple of hours. Illness was self-limiting without any complications during the entire hospital stay and follow up.

Keywords

Jatropha, Curcin, Neutrophilic Leukocytosis, Mydriasis