Poisoning with Boophane disticha: a forensic case

Scales from the bulb are traditionally used as wound dressing after circumc ision and as general wound dressing. Concoctions of the bulb taken orally c ause sedation, analgesia, visual hallucinations, irrational behaviour, coma or death, A mall ingested 150 ml of a concoction to see who placed a spell on him. He started to hallucinate, thinking that somebody was attacking hi m. He pulled his gun and fired shots randomly, killing one person and injur ing others. A gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer was used to analyze a sam ple of the concoction. The sample contained buphandrin, buphanine and crina midine (alkaloids) and eugenol, Buphanine has a pharmacological action simi lar to that of hyoscine and, when ingested in toxic quantities, leads to ex citement, agitation, hallucinations and coma. Eugenol is a volatile oil wit h analgesic properties. Although it could not be proved that the concoction was only from Boophane disticha, the components were similar to those foun d in Amaryllidaceae to which Boophane belongs. The man's behaviour could be ascribed to the ingestion of compounds found in B. disticha.