Toxicity of Elephant Ear plants?

Question

My brother came inside and said he had put some of the fluid from an elephant ear plant (which we have in our yard) in his mouth. He said it burned a little, so he spat it out and rinsed his mouth out. He then looked it up online and told me it had some type of acid in it which, if ever ingested, you should call poison control. My dad called poison control, and they said he had to get to the ER as soon as they could. This has got me really worrying. How toxic is this stuff? It's supposed to be a harmless garden plant...you think they'd tell you if it was toxic. It was a dumb thing for my brother to do, granted, but its happened...so I'm wondering how toxic these things are?

Answer 1

  He is probably going to be alright.  If he chewed on it but didn't eat it he will be okay. They may have to clean off his tongue and watch him for a little while.  The  calcium oxalate crystals of Elephant Ear and other plants can cause swelling of the tongue and pain in the throat in small amounts. Don't keep it around where a cat or baby can get it.

As far as garden plants go though a lot of other house plants and garden plants are poisonous.  Dieffenbachia is one. It is called dumb cane because it can paralyze your vocal chords. Lily of the Valley are very poisonous as is Digitalis which is a flower  and a heart medicine.  These are just a few of the many poisonous plants.  The list could go on and on.  I can put a link below so you can research this on your own.

Elephant Ear is not even listed on this poisonous plant site. I found one source that said that it was a skin irritant and can seriously upset your stomach but it will not kill you.  I once sucked on the stem of the plants when I was a kid for the sour taste and while I am pretty sure it didn't help me any it obviously didn't do any permanent harm either.  I never got anything more than a sore tongue from the experience.  

By the way while gardening one time I got the crystals in my eye and talk about pain!  Like all plants you have to respect them.  You might go over the poisonous plant list with your little brother and discuss about this experimentation he has going on.  

Answer 2

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/growgreen/dow...

Intense burning and irritation of the mouth and tongue may progress, or not. In some cases death can occur if base of the tongue swells enough to block the air passage of the throat--thus observe his tongue but do not panic.

http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/publication...

I hope it helps.

Answer 3

It's just oxalate acid.  He already felt the worst the, "poison," is going to do to him--burn his mouth a little.  He burned his mouth, he spit it out, it's over.