This summer in gardens and along the verges there has been an abundance of Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae, more commonly known as wood spurge.
When Euphorbia stems are cut, a milky white sap oozes from them.
Euphorbia sap can cause skin to become photosensitive: if it is handled with bare skin in the sun, it can cause blisters. So too can the sap of parsnips, celery, parsley, cow parsley and some hogweed. Like many plants, Euphorbias can be both a poison and a cure in one. The seeds of the berry are very poisonous: just one is known to be able to kill a child. However, in a recent drug trial it was found to be very effective against skin cancer and might in the future become a new drug.
On Saturday, June 17 a resident of Rye Harbour was cutting down the Euphorbia in their garden on a very hot day. Wiping away sweat from his brow he inadvertently transferred some of the sap on to his forehead and minutes later he was in excruciating pain as the sap had dripped down with sweat into his eyes. It stung ferociously and he had to keep his eyes closed to relieve the pain. His wife washed his eyes with an eye bath but when the symptoms did not abate after a couple of hours, she took him to A&E at the Conquest Hospital where over a period of seven hours, each eyes was irrigated with eight litres of saline. The purpose of the irrigation was to clean the eyes and to return the Ph level of the eye to seven before he was allowed to return home. Before irrigation the Ph level was recorded as ten.
Thankfully when he awoke on Sunday morning the pain had gone and his vison was normal. After a visit to the duty eye doctor at Eastbourne general he was prescribed a course of steroid, antibiotic and moisturising eye drops and his eyes have recovered. Some patients who have had Euphorbia sap in their eyes have suffered temporary blindness for up to three days.
The lesson is to treat these plants with respect and to wear protective hand and eye wear and probably not to undertake the cutting back of Euphorbia on a very hot day.
Image Credits: Kt bruce .