Lucknow: A colourful flower, a bright seed or a familiar plant in the garden may look harmless, but some can cause serious poisoning if eaten.For children, who may pick leaves, flowers or seeds out of curiosity, the danger can go unnoticed until symptoms appear.Oleander, ratti and dhatura are among plants commonly found around homes and gardens and contain toxic substances. To help people recognise these risks, King George’s Medical University has opened a Toxicology Garden where visitors can see such plants and learn about their effects.KGMU Vice-Chancellor Prof Soniya Nityanand inaugurated the garden, ‘Kashyap Upvan’, on Tuesday during the concluding day of the three-day Toxicomania 3.0 organised by the department of forensic medicine and toxicology.Prof Nityanand said, “Awareness and the ability to recognise potential hazards around us are important steps in preventing poisoning. The garden would provide practical learning to medical students and could also improve awareness about poisonous plants in the community.”Prof Shiuli, from the department, said the garden would allow students to identify poisonous plants through direct observation. “Identification is an important part of preventing plant-related poisoning,” she said.Sangeeta Kumari, associated with the initiative, said many toxic plants were commonly found around homes. “People need to know which plants can be harmful,” she said.The garden displays toxicologically important plants with their common and scientific names and details of their major toxic effects. It will also be used for practical training of medical students.Toxicomania 3.0 began on Oct 5 with an outreach programme at Gram Saniyawa, where residents were informed about poisoning risks from pesticides, household chemicals, medicines, poisonous plants and snakebites.
