Corneal Toxicity Following Exposure to Asclepias Tuberosa
Mikkelsen LH, Hamoudi H, Gül CA and others. The open ophthalmology journal, January 2017.
Read the paper Free to read · doi:10.2174/1874364101711010001
What this paper is about
A 70-year-old woman developed blurred vision and pain in one eye after handling butterfly weed. Examination found swelling in the corneal stroma with small breaks in the surface.
The cardenolides in the latex inhibit the sodium-potassium pump in the cornea, which is what causes the swelling. It cleared with treatment. Worth knowing before handling cut stems near the face.
Summarised here from the abstract below. Not the authors’ words.
Abstract
PurposeTo present a case of corneal toxicity following exposure to milky plant latex from Asclepias tuberosa.MethodsA 70-year-old female presented with blurred vision and pain in her left eye after handling an Ascepias tuberosa. Clinical examination revealed a corneal stromal oedema with small epithelial defects. The corneal endothelium was intact and folds in Descemets membrane were observed. The oedema was treated with chloramphenicol, dexamethasone and scopolamine.ResultsThe corneal oedema had appeared after corneal exposure to the plant, Asclepias tuberosa, whose latex contains cardenolides that inhibit the Na+/ K+-ATPase in the corneal endothelium. The oedema resolved after 96 hours. After nine months the best corrected visual acuity was 20/20.ConclusionCorneal toxicity has previously been reported for plants of the Asclepias family. This is a rare case describing severe corneal toxicity caused by exposure to latex from Asclepias tuberosa. Handling of plants of the Asclepias family should be kept as a differential diagnosis in cases of acute corneal toxicity.
Abstract reproduced from the published paper, which is licensed CC BY. Copyright remains with the authors.
Key terms
Milkweeds in this paper
- Butterfly Weed Asclepias tuberosa
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title = {Corneal Toxicity Following Exposure to Asclepias Tuberosa (listing)},
author = {{Milkweed USA}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://milkweedusa.com/research/corneal-toxicity-following-exposure-to-asclepias-tuberosa-2017/},
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}