Are Poinsettias Poisonous?

How did this myth begin? Supposedly, in 1919 an Army officer claimed the death of his child was the result of eating a poinsettia bract (flower). This story was later determined to be only a rumor, an urban legend fifty years before anyone even knew what an urban legend was.

No other consumer plant has been tested for toxicity as much as the poinsettia. All research results have found no toxicity with ingestion of any part of a poinsettia. Even so, it is still widely believed that ingestion of the plant is poisonous.

Here are the facts:

• Research conducted by Ohio State University found ingesting large amounts of any part of the plant to be non-toxic.
• POISINDEX (the resource used by US poison control centers) states that a fifty pound child would have to eat more than 500 poinsettia leaves to exceed the experimental doses found to be toxic.
• Data collected in 1995 by the American Association of Poison Control Centers reported that our of 22,793 cases, no significant toxicity was found with ingestion of the plant.
• The American Medical Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants states that ingestion of the poinsettia plant may produce vomiting but no toxic effects.
• Results of a 1995 Society of American Florists poll conducted by Bruskin/Goldring found of those polled:
  • 45% falsely believed chocolate causes acne
  • 45% falsely believed sugar causes diabetes
  • 66% falsely believe the ingestion of the poinsettia plant to be toxic
• In this day of stupid warning labels (On packaging for a Rowenta iron: Do not iron clothes on body), if poinsettias were toxic in any way they would not be available. And if they were, they would carry a warning label such as: 'Do not eat more than 500 leaves at once.'

So the answer to the question is: Poinsettias are non-toxic and are not poisonous.

Source: Society of American Florists, 1601 Duke Street, Alexandria, VA 22314

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