Oleander

Oleander (Nerium oleander, (pronounced /ˈniːriəm ˈoʊliː.ændər/) is one of the most poisonous plants known. It is the only species currently classified in the genus Nerium. Other names include Adelfa, Alheli Extranjero, Baladre, Espirradeira, Flor de São Jose, Laurel de jardín, Laurel rosa, Laurier rose, Flourier rose, Olean, Aiwa, Rosa Francesca, Rosa Laurel, and Rose-bay (Inchem 2005), закум [zakum] (Bulgarian), leander (Hungarian), leandru (Romanian), zakum, zakkum, zakhum (Turkish), zaqqum (Arabic); harduf (Hebrew: הרדוף); Kaneru (Sinhalese);arali (Tamil and Malayalam - South Indian languages); kanagillu (Kannada - South Indian language); kaner (in Hindi, and, also, in Punjabi-the language from North Indian state of Punjab); and in Chinese it is known as jia zhu tao (Chinese: 夹竹桃). The ancient city of Volubilis in Morocco took its name from the old Latin name for the flower.

There are innumerable reported suicidal cases of consuming mashed oleander seeds in southern India.

I want to plant one of these. I love poisonous plants! Poison is the most beautiful beautiful

"It completely overwhelms the health service. Often young people use it as a way of getting back at people. They get scolded and they take a yellow oleander seed.

"I remember one girl said her mother wanted her to get up and do the shopping. She said no, her mother scolded her and she took a Yellow Oleander seed.

"I remember a Muslim girl - her mother said she couldn't watch TV during Ramadan, so she took a seed in front of her mother.

"We had no ambulance to get her in time and we had no good treatments. She died."

It's not just young people. In a remote hospital in Pollonaruwa, where Michael Eddleston has done much of his research, I met an old man, a strict Buddhist, recovering from a suicide attempt.

He had fallen out with his wife, over his habit of feeding the neighbourhood dogs. You care more about those dogs than me, said the wife.

The man, feeling that his Buddhist principles were under attack, walked out and swallowed a seed from a tree in his garden.

Luckily, relatives discovered him and got him to Pollonaruwa in time.

Many of these protest suicide attempts are only semi-serious but up to 10% of them are fatal anyway - a much higher percentage than in the west, where we have good anti-poisoning drugs and facilities.

Michael Eddleston wanted to do something about that.

The poison from Yellow Oleander is similar to a drug used in the West to treat heart beat irregularities, digoxin. Digoxin slows down the heart beat.

Dramatic effect

An oleander seed is like 100 digoxin tablets in one container, and the effect on the heart is dramatic: it gets slower and slower, and then stops.

Source: Wikipedia and BBC