A FAMILY of six in Futian District suffered from food poisoning last week after drinking homemade soup that contained a poisonous herb, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

A resident in his 60s surnamed Chen cooked some soup for his family with herbs that were supposed to help cool down and detoxify human bodies in this hot and humid season. He asked someone from his hometown to bring him some fresh herbs last week.

Chen’s family ate the soup at around 7:30 p.m. and they started to feel sick in about half an hour.

The patients suffered from symptoms such as dizziness, blurred vision, nausea and vomiting. Those who ate the most soup suffered from more severe symptoms, the report said.

The family realized that the soup must be to blame and rushed to a nearby hospital.

Doctors from Futian Center of Disease Control and Prevention collected the remnants of the soup and urine samples from the family members to test in its laboratory. The results showed that a kind of poisonous herb known as gelsemium elegans was found in the soup.

Gelsemium elegans, also known as gut melting grass, is a species largely distributed in South China. Many traditional Chinese medicine practitioners use this plant for external use only, as gelsemium elegans is very toxic and cannot be taken orally.

Since the herb is usually found in mountainous areas and grows amid other plants, many people might pick the plant by mistake. The gelsemium elegans Chen used to cook the soup had been mistaken for another herb with a similar appearance.

Luckily, Chen and his family only consumed a small amount of gelsemium elegans and were only mildly poisoned.

According to the disease control and prevention center, residents should go to pharmacies to purchase herbs under a doctor’s instruction and advice. Residents are also reminded not to consume herbs collected in the wild. (Zhang Qian)