Death of woman puts spotlight on oleander
The recent death of a 24year-old woman from Pallippad, near Haripad, in Alappuzha reportedly after chewing the leaf and ower of Nerium oleander (Arali) has put the spotlight on the plant.
Soorya Surendran, a nurse, collapsed after reaching the Cochin international airport to travel to the U.K. on April 28. She died on Monday while undergoing treatment in a hospital at Parumala. According to the Haripad police, Soorya had told doctors and her parents that she chewed a leaf and ower of a plant (later identied as oleander) and immediately spit it on the morning of April 28 while walking outside her home, talking over mobile phone.
As per the preliminary report of the post-mortem examination, no parts of the leaf or ower have been found in her intestine. But doctors believe the woman might have unintentionally ingested a small amount of the juice of the leaf and ower of oleander. “We are awaiting the detailed post-mortem report as well as the examination report of internal organs to ascertain the cause of the death,” said Haripad circle inspector K. Abhilash Kumar.
According to experts,
Nerium oleander contains highly poisonous cardiac chemical substances and directly aects the heart. “It contains oleandrin, neriin, digitoxigenin and so on, of which oleandrin is the principal toxin. As it contains cardiac poison, its immediate eect is on heart. Depending upon the quantity and the plant part entering the body, its eect will vary,” said P.R. Unnikrishna Pillai, former Principal Sanatana Dharma College, Alappuzha. The Travancore Devaswom Board is contemplating a complete ban on the use of the ower in temples under its administration.