Calcium Oxalate - Effects of Ingestion

Effects of Ingestion

Even a small dose of calcium oxalate is enough to cause intense sensations of burning in the mouth and throat, swelling, and choking that could last for up to two weeks. In greater doses it can cause severe digestive upset, breathing difficulties, coma or even death. Recovery from severe oxalate poisoning is possible, but permanent liver and kidney damage may have occurred.

The stalks of plants in the Dieffenbachia genus produce the most severe oxalate reactions. The needle-like oxalate crystals produce pain and swelling when they contact lips, tongue, oral mucosa, conjunctiva, or skin. Edema primarily is due to direct trauma from the needle-like crystals and, to a lesser extent, by other plant toxins (e.g., bradykinins, enzymes).

Depending on the plant ingested, mild (Elephant Ear Colocasia esculenta) to more severe (Jack in the Pulpit, Arisaema) can cause compromised airways. One bite on the Arisaema seed pod will result in immediate swelling and burning. It will take over 12 hours for the swelling to subside.

Read more about this topic:  Calcium Oxalate

Famous quotes containing the words effects of and/or effects:

    Each of us, even the lowliest and most insignificant among us, was uprooted from his innermost existence by the almost constant volcanic upheavals visited upon our European soil and, as one of countless human beings, I can’t claim any special place for myself except that, as an Austrian, a Jew, writer, humanist and pacifist, I have always been precisely in those places where the effects of the thrusts were most violent.
    Stefan Zweig (18811942)

    Trade and commerce, if they were not made of India-rubber, would never manage to bounce over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way; and, if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of their actions and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished with those mischievous persons who put obstructions on the railroads.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)