Журнал судебной токсикологии и фармакологии

Abrus precatorius poisoning leading to hemorrhagic gastroduodenitis� a rare experience

Dibbendhu Khanra, Arunansu Talukdar, Kaushik Basu and Suman Mitra

Abrus precatorius poisoning leading to hemorrhagic gastroduodenitis– a rare experience

Abrus precatorius, popularly known as ‘kuch’ or ‘rati’, is used in weighing gold, making jewelry and children’s play. One to two crushed seeds can be fatal and very often used as cattle poison which mimics viper bite. Human poisoning with ‘kuch’ seeds is rarely reported in literature and almost always lifethreatening without prompt identification and aggressive supportive therapy. The authors here present a case of acute hemorrhagic gastroduodenitis following accidental ingestion of some beans with bright red and black color which was found to be Abrus precatorius. Patient himself identified those seeds as well as corroborated by forensic medicine and toxicology department. Moreover with vigilant monitoring the patient survived without any residual illness.