A Case of Food Poisoning Due to Ingestion of Eggplant, Solanum melongena, Grafted on Devil's Trumpet, Datura metel

Abstract

A husband and wife successively visited an emergency room with symptoms of staggering, slurred speech, mydriasis, and drowsiness, three hours after separately eating spaghetti with meat sauce. The sauce contained eggplant that had been grafted onto a Devil's trumpet, Datura metel. Scopolamine and atropine were detected in the leftover sauce and in the sera of the patients. This is the first case of food poisoning related to Datura in Okinawa, Japan and also might be the first report of food poisoning caused by intake of a vegetable grafted onto Datura in Japan.

Grafted vegetables – the influence of rootstock and scion on postharvest quality

“…In addition, total phenolics content was greater in the non-grafted plants (Moncada et al 2013). Oshiro et al (2008) found that grafting increased the accumulation of scopolamine and atropine, which accumulated at toxic levels in fruits of eggplant grafted onto Datura inoxia P. Mill.…”

Solanaceae Juss.

“…With both anecdotal and documented properties attributed to these genera, the ready acceptance of the tales of poisonous neurotoxic tropane alkaloids; steroidal glycoalkaloids; hepatotoxic kaurene glycosides; pyridines Several types of toxicants are represented in the Solanaceae (Pomilio et al 2008), the two most common being tropane alkaloids and steroidal glycoalkaloids. This may account for the unique intoxication involving a family in Japan due to ingestion of a sauce made from the fruit of an eggplant which had been grafted onto a Datura (Oshiro et al 2008). They produce severe nervous derangement in any species of animal.…”

“…Typically, scopolamine is Affected receptors are of several subtypes and are found mainly in the autonomic nervous system, central nervous system, heart and smooth muscle, and secretory tissues (Brown 1990). An EEG may reveal lower amplitude and slow activity persisting for 7 -10 hours (Ostfeld et al 1960). There is also increased vagal activity, with an increase in respiration and heart rates.…”

Worldwide poisoning potential of Brugmansia and Datura

“…Several cases of intoxication by ingestion of various parts of Brugmansia and Datura species have been reported [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41]. Symptoms of intoxication include dilated pupils, confusion, hallucinations, dryness of skin and mucous membranes, increased blood pressure and heart rate, and increased body temperature [11,36,[42][43][44].…”