Rhubarb is a perennial vegetable that is a staple of many desserts, typically discovering its approach into pies and crumbles. Whereas the vegetable offers quite a few well being advantages, the hot button is to solely eat the stalks. The plant’s leaves comprise a chemical known as oxalic acid, which could be toxic.
“Rhubarb leaves poisoning happens when somebody eats items of leaves from the rhubarb plant,” warns the U.S. Nationwide Library of Medication.
The leaves additionally comprise anthraquinone glycosides, that are suspected to be poisonous, warns the well being physique.
Oxalic acid can be present in spinach, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and broccoli however in decrease concentrations.
In keeping with the Ohio State College, oxalic acid is present in rhubarb leaves with a excessive content material of round 0.5 grams per 100 grams of leaves.
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Though, the well being physique notes that “the prompt deadly dose of oxalic acid is within the area of 15-30 grams, which means you’d need to eat a good few kilograms of the leaves to achieve this dose, however decrease doses can nonetheless trigger nausea and vomiting”.
Signs (of oxalic poisoning):
- Weak spot
- Burning within the mouth
- Dying from cardiovascular collapse
- Issue respiration
- Burning within the throat/mouth
- Belly ache
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Diarrhoea
- Convulsions
- Coma
- Kidney stones
- Crimson-coloured urine
- Eye ache.
Signs of anthraquinone poisoning embody pores and skin irritation, eye irritation and discolouration of urine.
Anecdotal stories of poisoning from rhubarb leaves makes for harrowing studying.
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In 1919, a health care provider in Helena, Montana, wrote to the Journal of the American Medical Association regarding the disturbing case of a younger spouse who was pale, exhausted, and vomiting when he arrived.
She had apparently been pregnant – he discovered “the entire merchandise of conception of about six weeks’ growth, discharged into the mattress garments” – however the placenta was cold, and what blood there was wouldn’t coagulate.
She died just a few hours later, bleeding from the nostril.
The night time earlier than, she’d made rhubarb stems and leaves for supper, and had eaten many of the leaves herself, whereas her husband had solely a bit.
He was weak and dizzy, however didn’t die. The journal editors wrote again that the physician’s hunch – that she had been poisoned by the rhubarb leaves, most likely by oxalic acid – was probably appropriate.
Numerous deaths from using the leaves have been reported,” they wrote.
“Throughout the struggle using the leaves as a meals substitute was beneficial in England; when the hazard of deadly poisoning turned obvious (owing to a number of deaths) warnings towards using the leaves had been issued.”
Whereas steering away from the leaves is essential, the stalks can present a number of well being advantages.
Rhubarb is jam-packed filled with wholesome vitamins, minerals, and nutritional vitamins.
Research on the well being advantages of rhubarb are restricted, however there are some promising outcomes.
For instance, rhubarb accommodates excessive ranges of fibre, which is linked to the decreasing of levels of cholesterol throughout the physique.
A latest managed research discovered that males who ate 27 grams of rhubarb-stalk fibre each day for a month skilled a drop of their levels of cholesterol by eight % in addition to a drop of their LDL (unhealthy) ldl cholesterol of 9 %.
Excessive ldl cholesterol is a precursor to coronary heart illness.
