The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday urged the public not to pick wild vegetables to eat on Lunar New Year holidays outings, as cases of food poisoning from eating unknown wild plants occur every year.
FDA official Lin Hsu-yang (林旭陽) said there are three or four cases of food poisoning from eating wild plants reported each year, with 16 cases between from 2000 to 2014, including six cases in which people mistook green-spored parasols (Chlorophyllum molybdites) for the edible parasol mushroom (Macrolepiota procera).
Other cases included mistaking giant upright elephant ear (Alocasia odora) for taro and mistaking groundsel (Senecio vulgaris) for chrysanthemum (Glebionis coronaria), he said.
Lin said that people sometimes pick wild plants when hiking and add them to their meals, but many wild plants have different levels of natural poisons and some plants with higher levels might cause people who consume them to become ill.
People who ingest green-spored parasols can experience nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, blood in their stool, dehydration and gastroenteritis, he said, adding that eating giant upright elephant ear can cause symptoms including a sore throat, numbness of the mouth, drooling, difficulty swallowing and stomachaches.
Groundsel contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids that can cause people who eat it to suffer liver damage or even death in severe cases, he said.
Lin said mushrooms are difficult to identify and that groundsel and chrysanthemum look similar because they are both in the plant family Asteraceae, so people should avoid picking wild plants to avoid mistakenly consuming poisonous ones.
“The giant upright elephant ear leaves look similar to those of taro, but the taro leaf has fine hair on its surface to allow water droplets to easily roll off the surface,” while giant upright elephant ear leaves are smooth, FDA senior specialist Lin Tse-yang (林澤揚) said.
“Again, we strongly urge people not to pick wild plants that look similar to edible vegetables to avoid accidental food poisoning,” Lin Tse-yang said.
If anyone should experience discomfort after eating vegetables from a unknown source, they should seek medical attention as soon as possible and keep part of the plant for examination, he added.
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