In 2013, the bad news came from the East Lake Zoo in Quanzhou City, when the alpacas that still had the legacy of the "Baidu Divine Beast" were fed to death by tourists, and the smallest of the 3 alpacas died, so angry that some citizens shouted the nickname of the sacred beast to the unknown murderer.
Non-party camel
After veterinary testing, the cause of the death of the baby alpaca spitting white foam should be the oleander next to the fence, which may be caused by tourists not knowing its toxicity and not complying with the regulations. A few days later, another red panda also died from eating oleanders.
If you read this short story and still have doubts, either you don't know about the oleander, or you don't know that the oleander is poisonous, or you just can't understand why such a poisonous plant is everywhere.
How poisonous is oleander? If the toxicity of effective toxic substances is discussed alone, oleander may not be ranked, but because oleander is poisonous all over the body and is widely planted as a street tree, it is not an exaggeration to call it the deadliest plant in life.
Oleandrin (also known as oleandrin) is the most important toxic component of oleander, it is a cardiac glycoside substance, mainly acting on the digestive system and cardiovascular system, excessive intake will lead to vomiting, heart contraction becomes stronger and slower, heart block eventually stops beating.
This substance is mainly present in the juice of oleander, so the roots, stems, leaves, and even flowers and products after combustion of oleander are toxic, which can be said to be invincible, and bizarre cases of oleander death are widely spread in China or Europe and the United States.
Van Gogh's oleander, painted in 1888
In the middle of the last century, there was a story in both the United States and Australia: Boy Scouts camped out in the wilderness, cut down some oleander branches nearby and made a fire to make marshmallows/hot dogs/meat barbecues, and the next day they all died.
After research, this Boy Scout story does not provide any places and events to check, and it is likely to be an urban legend, but the legend of the death of oleander in the wild has a long history. In an 1853 book, it is mentioned that in 1809, when the French army was fighting near Madrid, Spain, some soldiers launched a plunder of civilians, snatching everything and food. One soldier had a fatal idea, he sharpened the branches of the oleander trees common in Spain and grilled meat, and 7 of the 12 soldiers who ate the barbecue died and 5 were critically ill.
These legends have keywords such as "army", "oleander", "barbecue", and "death", which shows people's fear of oleander. However, toxicological studies have been carried out according to the description of the legend, and the toxins contained in the food strung by the oleander branches are far below the limit of the human body's tolerance, which theoretically does not cause death, and there is also the synergistic effect of the toxic fumes produced by burning oleander, but perhaps the probability of being choked to death is greater than that of poisoning.
However, there are reliable records in China, Hong Kong has occurred in the process of cooking porridge using oleander branches to cause death, Taiwan has also had cases of poisoning using oleander branches as chopsticks, it is suspected that there is a relatively large difference in the amount of toxins contained in oleander varieties.
However, not dying does not necessarily mean that you will not be caught. Oleander is very common in the south, and it blooms for half a year, which may attract nearby wild bees to collect honey, and if you are greedy for honey hunting, you may eat poisonous wild honey. However, oleanders are generally planted in the city, and the possibility of being patronized by wild bees is still slightly lower, and the favorite source of poisonous honey for wild bees is plants such as Triptolide under the Wee spear family. In short, not only do not pick the wildflowers on the side of the road, but also do not lick the wild honey on the side of the road, and lick until the end, the ward hangs water.
Poison to poison, that is also the means of livelihood of people oleander, whether it is a common alkaloids, terpenoids, or oleander contains glycosides, are plants evolved chemical defense means, if you do not complain about it, people and animals do not disturb.
But there are always people who want to do things, knowing that there are tigers in the mountains that are biased towards the tiger mountains. It's just a pity that there is no heroism left in the end, only bad names.
Oleanders are often found in the yard in the United States
The first group of people are loyal fans of folk medicine. In a research paper on common plant poisoning recorded such a case, the 25-year-old daughter suffered from intermittent psychosis, perennial did not get better and formal treatment, the condition repeatedly, her father listened to the home remedies introduced by others, the 25 pieces of fresh oleander leaves were mashed and warmed boiled water to make a soup of about 100 ml, the daughter drank the soup for 20 minutes after appearing nausea and vomiting and other typical symptoms of oleandrin poisoning, but did not get timely treatment, 4 and a half hours later died.
Coincidentally, a similar case occurred in Yudu County, Jiangxi Province in 1998. The father of an intermittent psychopath asked the unlicensed doctor Zhang Mou to see his son, Zhang Mou used more than 100 pieces of fresh oleander leaves to chop and decoction water for the patient to take, and finally this ancestral oleander method of treating mental illness also killed the 31-year-old patient.
Not only can oleander be poisoned, but external application can also be fatal. Although oleandrin can indeed be used in medicine to treat some diseases, the dosage must be strictly controlled, and ancestral remedies do not eliminate mental illness, only take away mentally ill people.
The killer, Angelina Rodriguez, is also accused of murdering his 13-month-old daughter
Feeding people oleanders is either stupid or bad. In 2000, Angelina, a California woman, was at odds with her husband, but coveted her husband's high life insurance, so she planned to murder her husband. She has used gas, oleander, antifreeze many times to try murder, oleander tea bitter, only let her husband poisoned but not enough to cause death, and finally she added antifreeze (ethylene glycol, sweet) in Gatorade, tricking her husband to relieve the discomfort of poisoning, and finally completed the murder.
Of course, if the protagonist is not a person, there is an exception. The famous oleander moth is the kind of insect that the larvae have two obvious false eye spots and are brushed "like Iron Man" from time to time.
Larvae and adults of the oleander moth
Oleander moth is one of the few organisms that can feed on oleander, not only can tolerate the toxicity of oleander, but even itself is full of poison, holding the thigh of oleander, no insects grab rice just no birds dare to just fit it. I don't know who its eyes are for, I'm afraid it's not "eye fake poison".
After so many cases, everyone should have a certain understanding of the power of oleander, although oleandrin is not as exaggerated as ricin in the lethal amount, but because it can be seen everywhere and the whole plant is poisonous, the top list of various highly toxic plants circulating on the Internet is often inseparable from castor, parsley, belladonna.
In fact, there is also a question, that is, where do these ubiquitous oleanders come from?
Oleander is native to Iran, India, Nepal, Afghanistan and other regions, to put it bluntly, it is not a native species of China, it is so toxic, why do we need to introduce or even widely plant it? Isn't that luring a wolf into the house?
According to records, oleander was first introduced to the Central Plains from India in the Tang Dynasty, because the climate of the Central Plains was too cold to be widely cultivated, only in the south as a niche ornamental plant, at first only transliterated name, in the Qing Dynasty because it "flowers like peach, leaves like bamboo" and had the name oleander.
As for how it later became a common street tree in the city, it was after the Industrial Revolution. With the development of industry all over the world, urban pollution is becoming more and more serious, but greening is also just needed, so a large number of plants with strong environmental tolerance have been selected as new greening trees, and oleander can be regarded as the king of kings in the fight against pollution.
At the end of World War II, when Hiroshima was razed by the atomic bomb, people thought that there would be no grass here for decades, and as a result, in the spring of the following year, oleander sprouted first in a garden within 1 km of the nuclear explosion center, bringing hope to the affected citizens of Hiroshima. Since then, oleander has also become a flower of hope in people's minds because it has witnessed the reconstruction after the disaster, and it has deservedly been chosen as the city flower.
The story is somewhat touching, but in fact oleander is a complete "tool tree" in China, because it is almost afraid of nothing but hardiness. Drought-tolerant and salinity-tolerant, it is also resistant to smoke, dust, and oil, because the leaf surface of oleander is covered with a thick waxy layer, ordinary pollution has no pressure at all, and people can also resist acid rain.
Oleander signature leaf
Industrial cities are polluted, and my oleander is not only not afraid but also can help you purify. In acid rain, oleander can absorb sulfur dioxide, and even carbon dioxide, hydrogen fluoride, and chlorine can be carried. Heavy metal pollution, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, nickel, zinc, mercury together, phase III garbage soil oleander can not only live well, but also slowly improve pollution. The water body is rich in nutrients, and the soilless hydroponic oleander can absorb nitrogen and phosphorus elements, and the water purification ability is also good.
So if you see a lot of oleanders planted in the green belt of a city, it means that the city is currently or has been more polluted, but as long as the oleander is there, it is always a good thing for the environment. In fact, there are many kinds of green trees that can absorb pollutants, and the single ability of oleander is not the strongest, it can only be said that the comprehensive strength is not bad, but the most powerful thing is that oleander has good ornamental value under such a premise, and it can bloom in the warm south and even all year round, and the flowering period is long and beautiful.
The blooming oleander forest is still very interesting
Just as the so-called ability is greater the responsibility, the oleander has a body of ability but can only be often planted on the side of the road, the green belt of the industrial park, the stinky waterhole, the landfill and so on...
In China, oleander also has a special task - snail control. The water infiltration of oleander has a miraculous effect on killing snails, surpassing all other common plants and making it more environmentally friendly than chemical drugs. Without even using the water immersion of oleander, it is a completely new way to control schistosomiasis by simply planting it in a designated area to kill and inhibit the survival of snails.
In fact, oleander is not only excellent in itself, but also other brothers in the oleander family are also famous, such as frangipani and periwinkle.
Finally, back to the poison of oleander, in fact, it is not so terrible. Oleander juice taste bitter, even animals rarely eat by mistake, only mixed in other foods can be eaten, as long as you do not superstitious about any ancestral folk remedies, oleander is likely not to have close contact with you for a lifetime.
In fact, the oleander in the city does not need to be watered or fertilized, it is quietly there, fighting against the harsh urban environment with the toughness of the mountain, from life to death without a ripple.
Unless you meet "Iron Man"...
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