The Poison Effect of Urushiol On Human

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You must have heard the phrase "let the leaves of three be" but out of curiosity, you want to know what would happen if you eat a poison ivy. It is dramatic and depressing to watch your body scrub through a poison ivy leaf and experience the itch of it if you do not wash the area off within about 10 minutes but the itching isn't all that there is, you also experience swelling and blisters which could exist for 3 weeks in a total experience known as Contact Dermatitis and the compound responsible for the act is Urushiol and only 1 nanogram is needed to create the cascade of event.

Reaction from Urushiol can be from contact with the Anacardiaceae family including poison ivy, poison semac, poison oak, cashews, and pistachios. For the nuts, they need to be steamed, boiled or roasted so they can be eadible so as to nutralize the urushiol. Back to the poison ivy, about 70% of people are sensitive to urushiol from poison ivy.


freemalaysiatoday

When this poisonous compound touches the skin, the tricks the white blood cell to begin an immune response where the skin is being seen as a foreign body. The only thing the poisonous compound does is to trigger the immune system, it is not the one responsible for the rashes and the itches itself. That said, I just talked about what could happen if you rub the leaf against your skin but the curious ones who swallow have a whole experience they will not be willing to share.

People who decide to chew will experience the itchy rash in their mouth and throat just like they would get on their skin and as the compound (Urushiol) goes down the digestive tract, it creates a whole problem. There are no confirmed study on this, but people who consume the leaves can have a lot of issues including organ failure. If the leaf makes contact with the eye, it could make it itchy, swell, and watery and it can even lead to blindness but if it doesn't, the condition can improve over time.


pikrepo

Inhaling Urushiol is another wrong decision to make as it can irritate the eye and nasal passages and lead to rashes in the lungs. Inhaling the compound can lead to pain and problem breathing. Although humans and other primates get problems when they come in contact with urushiol, other animals do not and this is because they do not have the skin protein that triggers immune response on their skin.

Scientists believe that humans and primates were never the target of urushiol, we were just victims of a twisted turn of fate where Urushiol created a defense mechanism against microbes and our immune protein just became a victim. Although, Urushiol from the sap of Korean Lacquer tree is being used in korean medicine to treat inflammation, and swelling. Also, a study shows that urushiol has the potential as a chemotherapy agent against stomach cancer.

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