A death due to wild tuber ingestion with literature review

Abstract

The spectacular or famous glory lily is the national flower of Zimbabwe, Africa, and the state flower of Tamil Nadu, India. It is a herbaceous climber having tuberous roots and leaf-tip tendrils. The plant is elementary to cultivate in a warm conservatory, and it grows into a climber from an underground tuber. All plant parts are toxic, especially tubers, containing the poisonous alkaloid colchicine. Plant parts or extracts are used in rural areas by native practitioners for common ailments. In India and Africa, recently, there has been a resurgence in attention in extracting antimicrobial and medicinally valuable compounds to the level of growing the plant as the crop. The prevalence of this plant poisoning is relatively scarce. All the plant parts, mainly its tuber, are considered to be highly toxic parts. We report the case of a young female, a 36-year-old, who consumed the boiled tubers of Gloriosa superba mixed with edible tuber along with her husband as their routine food in the afternoon after agricultural work. This manuscript also outlines the clinicopathological aspects of Glory Lily poisoning. This case report highlights the accidental or unintentional usage of Gloriosa or its extracts resulting in potentially fatal poisoning.