[Colchicine poisoning by accidental ingestion of the bulbs of Sandersonia aurantiaca: report of a case].

We report a case of colchicine poisoning in an 82-year-old woman. She had suffered from senile dementia and in her confused state ingested two bulbs of Sandersonia aurantiaca (Christmas-bells, Chinese lantern lily). She was admitted complaining of gastrointestinal symptoms, mainly severe watery diarrhea. The duration of her diarrhea was approximately 40 hours. On the 3rd day after ingestion, leukopenia and thrombocytopenia occurred. Although 50 micrograms of granulocyte-colony stimulating factor was administered from the 5th day to the 8th day, her white blood cell count did not increase and revealed nadir (100/microliter) on the 7th day. Her platelet count also revealed nadir on the 7th day. She died of respiratory failure in the early morning of the 9th day. The bulb of Sandersonia was found to contain colchicine at a concentration of 4.7 mg/g, and her serum level of colchicine was 6.3 ng/ml on the 6th day. Colchicine is an alkaroid extractable from the plants like Colchicum autumnale (meadow saffron, autumn crocus), and Gloriosa supra tuber. These plants belong to the lily family. Sandersonia aurantiaca also belongs to the lily family and we found that its bulb contained colchicine. To our knowledge, this is the first report of colchicine poisoning by Sandersonia aurantiaca.