I don’t know about you guys but I’m getting tired of the whole Flint, Michigan lead-in-the-water poisoning scandal. Anyone that knows anything about childhood lead exposure knows that this whole Flint problem is an embarrassing mistake that is being blown WAY out of proportion for political purposes. More on that later…
This story is about unintentional contamination of an herbal supplement (St. John’s Wort) with pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which are found in about 6,000 different kinds of plants in a variety of concentrations, most notably borage leaf and comfrey. It’s also found in Senecio jacobaea, which also goes by the delightful name “stinking willie” and ragwort. The pyrrolizidine alkaloids can cause some very severe liver injury as well as a variety of bad effects like blood clots and cancer, especially liver cancer.
Anyway – I guess some random pyrrolizidine containing plant material got mixed in with the St. John’s Wort and the Brits decided to recall a whole bunch of the packets. No word on whether anyone has actually been poisoned. Still – it’a a chance to talk about something other than Flint’s water.
Packages of St. John’s Wort and Stinking willie flowers.
