Poisonings in Pozzuoli. “While waiting for the relevant clarifications, it is recommended to avoid buying and consuming similar loose vegetables (spinach, chard). We are close to the poisoned citizens and their families and we are following, together with the police and health authorities, the evolution of the situation”.
This was declared by the mayor of Pozzuoli, Gigi Manzoni, in the hours in which the police, in collaboration with the ASL Napoli 2 Nord, are working to trace the supply chain that caused the food poisoning from Mandragola of some citizens of the Phlegraean area, currently hospitalized at the 'Santa Maria delle Grazie' hospital and one in serious condition who was transferred to intensive care at the hospital in Giugliano in Campania.
Some of the batches were marketed by companies in Forio d'Ischia and Volla, Aversa, San Valentino Torio and Avezzano. This is what emerged from the investigations that the Carabinieri are carrying out in synergy with their colleagues from the NAS and with specialized personnel from the competent ASL. The distribution chain is being followed to trace the batches likely at risk of "mandragora". The local health authorities have placed the food under official blockade to carry out sampling and analysis.
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Loss of lucidity, numbness, sometimes nausea and vomiting, slow loss of consciousness up to coma, and in some cases death. Accidental ingestion of mandrake is no joke, the symptoms appear within a few hours, and intervening in time is crucial. Amedeo Schipani, family doctor and toxicologist of Simpesv, Italian Society of Medicine, Prevention and Lifestyles, explains this to AGI, interviewed on the sidelines of the Fimmg congress underway in Villasimius after the cases of suspected mandrake poisoning in Campania.
“Mandragora belongs to the Solanaceae family – he explains – like other edible plants such as potatoes, tomatoes, aubergines, peppers, etc., or toxic ones such as Belladonna (Atropa belladonna), Jimson weed (Datura stramonium), Black henbane (Hyoscyamus niger), Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), and others”.
Poisonings in Pozzuoli, the expert. “Mandragora symptoms from numbness to coma”
A plant with a gloomy reputation, since always: “The peculiarity, which has made the mandrake known over the centuries as a magical plant – recalls Schipani – is the anthropomorphic root, to which numerous legends are associated, such as the blood-curdling scream that the plant is said to emit when it is torn from the ground with its root”.
If the root looks like a tiny and disturbing humanoid, the plant can look like a classic salad: "Unwary collectors - confirms the expert - can pick the mandrake mistaking it for other plants considered edible, such as borage, various types of lettuce, even spinach. Unfortunately, every year there are cases of more or less severe poisoning, up to death, due to the ingestion of mandrake leaves".
This is because, despite its appearance as a “normal” vegetable, mandrake “contains toxic principles belonging to the group of tropane alkaloids, in particular L-hyoscine, L-hyoscyamine and atropine. These alkaloids block muscarinic (or cholinergic) receptors, producing antimuscarinic effects. These receptors are present in many organs and systems, at the brain level, in the heart, in smooth muscles, in the eyes”.
For this reason, the symptoms are the classic ones of a serious neurotoxic action: "Among the symptoms, there are variable quantities of drowsiness, mental confusion, up to coma" and also "pupillary mydriasis and blurred vision, tachycardia, dry mouth, nausea, vomiting, increased body temperature". It is necessary to intervene immediately, warns the toxicologist, and "the specific therapy is based on the use of physostigmine, which acts as a reversible inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase. In addition, complementary measures such as gastric lavage are used".
Article published on 6 October 2022 - 15:27
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