Adverse effects and intoxications related to medicinal/harmful plants

Abstract

Many wild plants around us have beneficial effects on our body and can be used as food. People are more and more interested in the medicinal plants. Many of them began gathering and preparing plants for the relief of symptoms of diseases or as a food dietary. Due to the lack of knowledge of plants, mistaking plants that contain toxins for medical plants may happen and cause adverse effects or even poisoning. The Poison Control Centre in Ljubljana keeps records of patients who have been admitted to the department because of adverse effects from the ingestion of certain plants. We analysed 64 cases, which were registered by the Poison Control Centre between January 2000 and December 2013. The aim of the present study was to determine which plants cause the most intoxications in Slovenia.