Oleander Poisoning as an Example of Self-Medication Attempt

Abstract

Background: There is an increasing interest in herbal products as a self-medication method in recent years. Some plant extracts either turn into drugs over time or are consumed directly without treatment. One of these plants is Nerium oleander L., which is a potentially lethal plant, since it has cardiac glycosides. However, numerous researches of its extracts have been per-formed against cancer cell lines in recent literature. This contradiction leads to misinterpretation and in-duces the prevalence of intoxication or fatal cases.Case Report: This case is associated with an olean-der-poisoned patient, who was admitted to the Emer-gency unit 20 hours after the first dose, and 8 hours after the second dose. Although she lives in a metrop-olis and has a higher level of educationand numerous hospital facilities available, she had decided to take self-medication for her Hashimoto's thyroiditis and malignant thyroid disease which was caused by her apprehensive thoughts. Oleandrin was detected in the urine at a concentration of 3.2 ng/mL and in the serum at a concentration of 8.4 ng/mL by chromatographic analysis at the time of admission.Conclusion: This case represents the misunderstand-ing of herbal treatments by the community. Promoting awareness of the potential toxicity of this plant among the public may help to reduce the incidence of poison-ing due to Nerium species