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Poisoning with Boophane disticha: a forensic case

Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Medical University of Southern Africa, Pretoria, South Africa; Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, P.O. Box 225, Medical University of Southern Africa, PO Medunsa 0204, South Africa

L Swart

Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Medical University of Southern Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

G W van Huysteen

Forensic Science Laboratory, SA Police Services, Pretoria, South Africa

Scales from the bulb are traditionally used as wound dressing after circumcision and as general wound dressing. Concoctions of the bulb taken orally cause sedation, analgesia, visual hallucinations, irrational behaviour, coma or death. A man ingested 150 ml of a concoction to see who placed a spell on him. He started to hallucinate, thinking that somebody was attacking him. He pulled his gun and fired shots randomly, killing one person and injuring others. A gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer was used to analyze a sample of the concoction. The sample contained buphandrin, buphanine and crinamidine (alkaloids) and eugenol. Buphanine has a pharmacological action similar to that of hyoscine and, when ingested in toxic quantities, leads to excitement, agitation, hallucinations and coma. Eugenol is a volatile oilwithanalgesicproperties.Althoughitcould notbe proved that the concoction was only from Boophane disticha, the components were similar to those found in Amaryllidaceae to which Boophane belongs. The man's behaviour could be ascribed to the ingestion of compounds found in B. disticha.

Key Words: Boophane disticha • hallucination • buphandrin • buphanine

Human & Experimental Toxicology, Vol. 20, No. 5, 277-278 (2001)
DOI: 10.1191/096032701678227749


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