Hemotoxic plants contain toxins that can damage blood and tissues. Some examples discussed are horse chestnut, sweet vernal grass, tonka beans, sweet scented bedstraw, sweet clover, and fava beans. Many of these plants contain coumarins that interfere with blood clotting and can cause hemorrhaging or other dangerous effects in high amounts. However, some of these plants are also used in herbal medicine or as food sources when prepared properly. The document provides details on the botanical characteristics, traditional uses, active compounds, and potential toxicity of several hemotoxic plants.

1. “WHEN YOU ARE WILLING TO MAKE SACRIFICES FOR A
GREAT CAUSE, YOU WILL NEVER BE ALONE.”
HEMOTOXIC PLANTS
NUR FARRA NAJWA BINTI ABDUL AZIM
082015100035

2. • At the end of the seminar students should be able to
• Understand what is hemotoxic
• List the hemotoxic plant
• Discuss the characteristics and medico legal important of the
plants
• Briefly discuss the sign and symptoms of hemotoxic poisoning
OBJECTIVES

3. • Hemotoxins are toxins that cause
• hemolysis,
• disrupt blood clotting,
• cause organ degeneration
• generalized tissue damage.
• Toxins that damage the blood also damage other tissues.
• Injury from a hemotoxic agent is often very painful and can
cause permanent damage and in severe cases death.
Loss of an affected limb is possible even with prompt treatment.
INTRODUCTIONS

4. HEMOTOXIC PLANT
• Horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum)
• Sweet vernal grass (Anthoxanthum odoratum)
• Tonka beans (Dipteryx odorata)
• Sweet scented bed straw (Galium triflorum)
• Sweet clover (Melilotus spp)
• Fava bean, vetch (Vicia fava, vicia sativa)

5. • Flowering plant
• It is a large deciduous tree
• Grows to 36 metres tall
• With a domed crown of stout branches
• The leaves are opposite
and palmately compound, with 5–7
leaflets
• The flowers are usually white with a
small red spot
• Leaf scars left on twigs after the leaves
have fallen have a
distinctive horseshoe shape, complete
with seven "nails".
• The shell is a green,
spiky capsule containing one (rarely
two or three) nut-like seeds called
conkers or horse-chestnuts
• “It is very easy to distinguish it from
any other tree because of plenty of
white/pink pyramids on it.”
HORSE CHESNUT

7. Horse chestnut
• Anti-inflammatory effects: escin
• Antithrombin effects: hydroxycoumarin component
esculin
• Vascular effects: inhibits enzymes that are
implicated in the pathogenesis
of chronic venous insufficiency.
• Antioxidant effects

8. MEDICINAL USES
• The seed extract used for its
venotonic effect,
vascular protection,
anti-inflammatory
free radical scavenging properties
PRIMARY INDICATION IS CHRONIC VENOUS INSUFFICIENCY

9. TOXICITY
• High doses is associated with renal failure or a lupus like syndrome
• Consuming the nuts or drinking a tea made from horse chestnut leaves can
lead to horse chestnut poisoning.
• Such toxicity can lead to death,
• Although individuals are more likely to experience side effects such as
salivation, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, headaches, convulsions, a
breakdown of red blood cells along with circulatory and respiratory failure.
MLI- accidental

10. • In Britain and Ireland, the seeds are
used for the popular children's
game conkers.
• During the First World War, there was
a campaign to ask for everyone
(including children) to collect horse-
chestnuts and donate them to the
government
• The flower is the symbol of the city
of Kiev, capital of Ukraine
Chestnut trees on the main street of
Kiev - Khreshchatyk street

11. • Holy grass, vanilla grass, or buffalo
grass
• Is a flowering plant in the grass
• It is a short-lived perennial plant native
to acidic grassland in eurasia.
• It is grown as a lawn grass and a house
plant, due to its sweet scent
• 'Odoratum' is latin for 'odorous'.
• Grows in tufts
• Stems 25–40 cm tall, and short, broad
green leaves, which are slightly hairy.
• It flowers from april until june,
• Oblong shaped, which can be quite dark
when young.
• The scent is particularly strong when
dried, and is due to coumarin,
a glycoside, and benzoic acid –
• it smells like fresh hay with a hint
of vanilla.
• It avoids very dry or waterlogged soil.
SWEET VERNAL GRASS

13. SWEET VERNAL GRASS
• Caution !!!
• due to the high coumarin content, which can interfere with clotting.

14. SWEET VERNAL GRASS
• Symptoms of Poisoning:
mild cases - extended blood-clotting time that can lead to
hemorrhaging
severe cases - internal and/or external hemorrhaging cause
pale mucous membranes, subcutaneous swellings of pooled
blood, weakness, and death.
• treatment - injections of vitamin K, whole blood transfusion.

15. • People take sweet vernal grass for headache, nausea, sleeplessness, and
conditions of the urinary tract.
• In Russia, sweet vernal grass is used as an ingredient in certain brandies.
• Sweet vernal grass contains ingredients that can thin the blood.
• An outbreak of a hemorrhagic diathesis has been reported in cattle fed
sweet vernal grass hay
• MLI - Accidental
FOLK MEDICINE

16. • "Cumaru" or "kumaru"
• Flowering tree in the pea family
• Its seeds are known as tonka beans
• They are black and wrinkled and
have a smooth, brown interior.
• They have a strong fragrance similar
to sweet scented bed straw due to
their high content of coumarin.
• The word "tonka" is taken from
the galibi (carib) tongue spoken by
natives of french guiana
TONKA BEANS

17. KUMARU TREES
CAN LIVE TO
BE OVER 1,000
YEARS OLD.

18. • Species of tree that is native to northern south america and the brazilian
rainforest.
• Their fragrance and flavour is delicious; redolent of vanilla, cinnamon,
cherries, and cloves.
• Tonka beans can be used in food, cocktails, perfumery, and to flavour
candies and chocolates
• They are purported to be effective in treating cough, colds, asthma,
snakebites, and have been used as an antispasmodic.
• It is also purported to be an aphrodisiac.
TONKA BEANS

19. • Cudweed, sweet-scented bedstraw,
and fragrant bedstraw
• A herbaceous plant
• Galium triflorum grows on the forest
floor, spreading vegetatively by
means of stolons.
• Whorled leaves and single
fruiting peduncles rising above
basal rosettes.
• Stems are square in cross-section.
• The entire vine does not feel very
coarse, but it is rough enough to
stick to clothing.
SWEET SCENTED BEDSTRAW

21. It can be distinguished from
other Galium spp. (Bedstraws) by
1) there are 6 leaves per whorl,
2) the carpels are bristly rather
than glabrous,
3) the leaves are oblanceolate with
short pointed tips, and
4) the petals of the flowers taper to
narrow tips.

23.  HERBAL MEDICINE during the middle ages,
 External application to wounds and cuts
 Also taken internally in the treatment of digestive and liver problems
 A homeopathic remedy made from the plant is used in the treatment of inflammation of
the uterus
 In current day herbalism it is valued mainly for its tonic, diuretic and anti-inflammatory
affect
 The leaves are antispasmodic, cardiac, diaphoretic, diuretic, sedative.
 An infusion is used in the treatment of insomnia and nervous tension, varicose veins,
biliary obstruction, hepatitis and jaundice.

24. • Excessive doses can produce dizziness and symptoms of poisoning.
The dried plant contains coumarins and these act to prevent the
clotting of blood
• The plant is grown commercially as a source of coumarin, used to
make an anticoagulant drug

25. • Yellow sweet clover, yellow
melilot, ribbed
melilot and common melilot
• Species of legume
• Native to eurasia and introduced
in north america,
africa and australia.
• Annual or biennial plant,
• 1.2–1.8 m high
• Leaves alternate on the stem and
possess three leaflets.
• Yellow flowers and produce fruit in
pods
• Plants have large taproots and tend
to grow in groups.
• Plants have a characteristic sweet
odour.
SWEET CLOVER

28. • Contains coumarin that converts to dicoumarol
• Prior to world war ii before the common use of commercial agricultural
fertilizers
• Sweet clover is a major source of nectar for domestic honey bees
• In the chemical industry, dicoumarol is extracted from the plant to
produce rodenticides
SWEET CLOVER

30. • Stiffly erect plant 0.5–1.8 m tall
• The leaves are long , pinnate
• Flowers have a strong and sweet scent which is
attractive to bees and other
pollinators, particularly bumble bees.
• The fruit is a broad, leathery pod, green
maturing to blackish-brown, with a densely
downy surface
• Each pod contains 3–8 seeds
FAVA BEANS

33. • Vicia faba, broad bean, fava
bean, faba bean, field bean, bell
bean, English bean, horse
bean, Windsor bean, pigeon
bean and tic(k) bean,
• is a species of flowering plant in pea .
• In Egypt, the beans were considered
commoner food and were avoid by
the upper classes.
• In ancient Rome, they were used in
funeral rites.
• Pythagoras forbade his followers
from doing the same (eating fava
bean or touch it) and some claimed
that it was due to his belief that fava
beans contained the souls of the
dead.
FAVISM !!..
FAVA BEANS

37. REFERENCES