Sea Mango

Description

Cerbera odollam, the pong-pong tree is a dicotyledonous angiosperm, a plant species in the family Apocynaceae and commonly known as the suicide tree, pong-pong, mintolla, and othalam. It bears a fruit known as othalanga (Malayalam) that yields a potent poison that has been used for suicide and murder. It is a species native to India and other parts of southern Asia, growing preferentially in coastal salt swamps and in marshyareas but also grown as a hedge plant between home compounds. Cerbera odollam bears a close resemblance to oleander, another highly toxic plant from the same family. Its branchlets are whorled about the trunk, and its leaves are terminally crowded, with tapering bases, acuminate apices, and entire margins. The plant as a whole yields a milky, white latex. Its fruit, when still green, looks like a small mango, with a green fibrous shell enclosing an ovoid kernel measuring approximately 2 cm × 1.5 cm and consisting of two cross-matching white fleshy halves. On exposure to air, the white kernel turns violet, then dark grey, and ultimately brown, or black. The kernels of C. odollam contain cerberin, a digoxin-type cardenolide and cardiac glycoside toxin that blocks the calcium ion channels in heart muscle, causing disruption of the heart beat, most often fatally. The most common symptom of toxicity in humans was noted to be vomiting. Electrocardiographic abnormalities were noted to be common, the most common being sinus bradycardia. Around half of the patients develop thrombocytopenia. Temporary cardiac pacing has been used in the management, apart from other supportive measures. The difficulty in detecting cerberin in autopsies and the ability of strong spices to mask its taste makes it an agent of homicide and suicide in India; there were more than 500 cases of fatal Cerbera poisoning between 1989 and 1999 in the southwest Indian state of Kerala. A fatal dose of the poison is contained in one kernel, leading to death within 1–2 days.