Nerium oleander is one of the plant, which is traditionally used for treatment of some ailments like
bleeding of nose, tonsillitis, influenza, cardiac insufficiency, cold, headache, toothache, diabetes, irritable
bowel syndrome, jaundice etc. Even though, the plant, possess medicinal properties, it equally exhibits its
toxic nature. The toxicity associated with the plant is due to presence of glycosides as chemical
constituents like oleandrin, odoroside and adigoside in different parts of the plant. In this review, two case
reports were presented. Among them, the 1st case a, female subject had used the leaf extract as traditional
medicine for conception and lost life. In the 2nd case, the subject was female and she had consumed herbal
tea prepared from N. oleander leaves also had lost her life. ECG of the 1st case was presented in the study
and this study revealed, that mortality has resulted in bradycardia and heart block, due to inhibition of
Na+K
+ATPase, which resulted in hyperkalmia. Data was collected from 11 patients, who had been
exposed to N. oleander poisoning. The results were presented in tabular form and it revealed that 4
patients had not survived and 7 patients had survived after successful treatment. Hence, any plant which is exploited for its medicinal values had to be used very cautiously in the required therapeutic dose only, if
used beyond the therapeutic dose, may act as poison.
Keywords: Nerium oleander, oleandrin, poisoning, case studies, leaf extract
Publication date: 01/07/2022
https://ijbpas.com/pdf/2022/July/MS_IJBPAS_2022_6594.pdf
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https://doi.org/10.31032/IJBPAS/2022/11.7.6594
