Posted on 03/10/2017 11:13:52 PM PST by nickcarraway
Health officials warned the public Friday to throw away any herbal tea purchased from a Chinatown shop, after two people became critically ill after consuming the tea which was found to contained Aconite, a lethal poison.
In separate incidents from February and March, a woman in her 50s and a man in his 30s became gravely ill within an hour of drinking tea made from leaves supplied by the same San Francisco herbalist. The tea leaves were purchased at the Sun Wing Wo Trading Company, located at 1105 Grant Ave. in Chinatown in San Francisco.
Each person quickly became weak, experiencing life-threatening abnormal heart rhythms, which led to the need for resuscitation and intensive hospital care. Lab tests later found that Aconite, a plant-based toxin, was in the tea samples they provided.
“Anyone who has purchased tea from this location should not consume it and should throw it away immediately,” said Dr. Tomás Aragón, health officer for San Francisco city and county, in a statement. “Aconite poisoning attacks the heart and can be lethal.”
The health department is removing the potentially deadly product from the shelves there. The department is also working with the business owner to trace the source of the contamination and ensure safety for future customers.
People who have purchased and consumed the tea, and experienced no symptoms, are safe, but should not consume any more of it, health officials said. If you consume the tea and experience symptoms, call 911 or go immediately to the nearest hospital.
Symptoms usually begin within a few minutes or up to a couple of hours and can depend on the amount ingested, officials warned. They can include numbness or tingling of the face, mouth or limbs; weakness in the limbs and paralysis. Other symptoms can include dangerously low blood pressure, palpitations, chest pain, slow or fast heartbeat, and irregular heartbeats that can lead to sudden death, as well as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea.
With no antidote, Aconite is commonly called monkshood, helmet flower, wolfsbane, “chuanwu,” “caowu,” and “fuzi” and is used in Asian herbal medicine to treat pains, bruises and other conditions. Raw Aconite roots, leaves and flowers are generally toxic but are used only after adequate processing.
For further questions, contact California Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 or http://www.calpoison.org/
I used to grow this plant in Illinois for its beauty but always understood it to be very poisonous. I was surprised to see it listed for sale in an herbalist web site the other day and wondered what they did to it to eliminate the toxin...
Guess that’s still a problem.
Pontifications on Poison
Being some ramblings on events associated with poisonous plants.
http://www.thepoisongarden.co.uk/blog/blog111111.htm
>> With no antidote, Aconite is commonly called monkshood, helmet flower, ...
eh...
I just visited San Francisco, and stayed very near Chinatown. I’m glad I didn’t go into Chinatown and buy tea!
I am an insomniac and used to buy this great herbal cure in Chinatown. It came in a great box with a dozen tiny vials of pills.
You pulled the tiny cork and took two pills. After about 30 minutes, your heart would flutter and you fell asleep. These pills cost about $8.00 for a box of about 10 vials.. A friend and I took them every night.
But neither of us could explain the heart flutter even though it was totally effective.
I stopped taking it. Too bad no one tested those things!
Sum ting wong.
Wi tu sik
My wife has been spending a lot of time online lately. Now she is mandating I drink more tea because It’s good for me. I think I am going to worry about this.
“Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown”
Mi so sic
Me so sic
o.O
I’d worry if it’s some off the wall tea like what the story mentions. We only drink black tea by Bigelow. Black tea is supposed to have some health benefits.
bump just in case ya’ll have any of this stuff in your
pantry.
But it’s “all natural.” Pretty sure it’s also “organic” and “gluten-free.” Good thing it doesn’t have any evil “chemicals” in it either, otherwise it might be bad for you.
Hunt down some loose-leaf black tea, like Ceylonese or Oolong. More work to prepare it (you need one of those metal infuser balls) but SOOOOOO good!
Did the same guy give you a cute little creature and tell you not to feed it after midnight, or get it wet?
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