Stories: Hunter Hunted 2

It’s colchicine! If you’ve been following me, colchicine is one of the few unusual alkaloid toxins that I’ve featured in [Science]. You can find out what colchicine is and what it does via the link here. Colchicine is derived from plants of the family Colchicaceae, which include Colchicum autumnale and Gloriosa superba. As far as I know, colchicine is only restricted to the Colchicaceae family, and not beyond. It never crossed my mind that colchicine can exist in citron daylily (Hemerocallis citrina), which is classified under a completely different plant order, let alone family! It is like me saying the emperor penguins are found in the shores of tropical Malaysia. But guess what, in the world of plant chemistry nothing’s too impossible.  

 

In fact, I cannot find a single western academic paper which reported the presence of colchicine in daylily. But when I looked into the Chinese academic literature, it was evidently clear. This shows that the science I’ve learnt and trusted so much is primarily if not completely reliant upon western academia. This over reliance caused me profound implications, to the point of actual poisoning! What I thought was right, is now proven wrong, and for those (scientists) who can’t understand Chinese, they have no idea about it! Now you may think that this is no big deal for lay people, but trust me the knowledge gap between the western and Chinese academia is greater than all of us can conceive. To dismiss the Chinese academic literature for being unreliable or doubtful is very foolish as I found out the hard way.

Reference: Hong, Y. H.; Cheng, Z. W.; Li, J. H., Hu, C.  Journal of Hunan Agricultural University (Natural Sciences). 2003, 29 (6), 500–502. Note: The researchers quantified the concentration of colchicine in daylily (Hemerocallis citrina) following different preparation methods via high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC). Do not look down on this paper due to grammatical errors of the authors, it's not their job to present their work in English to non-Chinese readers. After all, we don't even write abstract in Chinese for Chinese scientists, don't expect them to write perfect English for you.

So here, I share with you a Chinese science article (from the Hunan Agricultural University) about this subject matter. For those who can read Chinese, it's self explanatory. But to those who can’t, the researchers compared different treatment methods to reduce colchicine level in daylily, in order to render it safer for human consumption. The article warns that fresh daylily contains colchicine, and consumption of more than 100 grams can lead to serious toxicity. Hence, the scientists found that treating (washing) daylily buds in 10% salt water solution at room temperature, or even better ice cold water for 0.5 to 1 hour can reduce the colchicine level by more than 60%. They have quantified the colchicine levels from each experiments in ways that I as a phytochemist find their work comprehensive and reliable. So, please don’t pick fresh daylily flowers and consume them, don’t eat more than 100 grams in a go, and do soak and rinse them in cold salt water for at least half an hour before consumption. If you develop symptoms of severe diarrhea or vomiting after consuming daylily, make sure you consume ORS (oral rehydrating salt) in plenty, and observe for more serious signs such as blood in the urine/stool, or faintness, or if symptoms worsen after 6 hours, get to the emergency room, and notify doctors of potential overdose by colchicine. Dried daylily flowers appeared to be safe, perhaps because colchicine has been degraded.

Remember to do this!

 

There are still a lot that we don’t know about plants and their toxins. Nobody knows how prevalent is colchicine among daylily or related plants. Certainly here in Malaysia, I don’t know how many have been poisoned by colchicine due to accidental overdose of daylily. I’ve personally heard quite many anecdotal reports of people having food poisoning after consuming daylilies, but I cannot confirm the presence of colchicine in retrospective cases. If I have extra research grant, or perhaps to Malaysian readers who are experts in the field, I suppose it is worthy to conduct a thorough chemical quantification (LCMS-MS) of colchicine from the daylilies (different cultivars and locality indicated) of Cameron highlands. Considering that many consumed this local delicacy, and that serious colchicine poisoning is potentially fatal, this is something that’s worthy of research. At the very least, it is worthy of public awareness.

 

Hunter hunted, but in a good way. My story is a lesson for myself and fellow scientists. We may think that we have done enough of review, seen enough of papers, but at times, it’s wise to look broader into the literature and people from other parts of the world with unfamiliar language and even methodology. Most importantly, I hope my story sheds more light and awareness on the least understood toxicity of daylily.