Korean J Med.  2000 Aug;59(2):208-212.

Two cases of honey poisoning with syncope

• Oh HL
• Kim WS
• Kang HS
• Choue CW
• Kim KS
• Song JS
• Bae JH

Abstract

Intoxifications caused by toxic honey were occurred recently in Korea. Honey poisoning is known to be induced by grayanotoxins, that appear in flowers of different species of Rhododendron. These toxic compounds cause depolarization of membranes that contain fast Na channel by increasing in Na permeability. After ingestion of toxic honey patients may present with neurological, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal sign and symptoms. Two cases of honey poisoning are described here. Both patients experienced syncope and severe arterial hypotension after ingestion of honey which was brought from Nepal and Brazil. Conservative treatement was fully successful in both patients within 24 hours. We report the first case of honey poisoning in Korea.

Keyword

Honey; Poisoning; Sick sinus syndrome

MeSH Terms

Brazil
Eating
Flowers
Honey*
Humans
Hypotension
Korea
Membranes
Nepal
Permeability
Poisoning*
Rhododendron
Sick Sinus Syndrome
Syncope*