Katherine Z Isoardi, Darren M Roberts, Amanda G Holford, Jared A Brown, Andrew Griffiths, Jessamine Soderstrom, Catherine McDonald, Dimitri Gerostamoulos, Paul Sakrajda, Claire Turner, Hans Yates, Naren Gunja, Shaun Greene
INTRODUCTION: Poppy seed tea is used for its opioid effects and contains multiple opium alkaloids, including morphine, codeine, papaverine, and thebaine. Animal studies indicate thebaine has strychnine-like properties, but there is limited literature describing human thebaine poisoning. We describe a cluster of acute thebaine poisoning in people ingesting tea made using poppy seeds with high thebaine content that entered the Australian food supply chain. METHODS: This is an observational study of patients poisoned after drinking poppy seed tea...
October 19, 2023: Clinical Toxicology