title: Acute voluntary intoxication by ricin.
abstract: 1 A 21-year-old student ingested thirty ricin seeds in a suicidal attempt, some of which were masticated. Three hours later he developed severe diarrhoea with vomiting and abdominal cramps, followed by extracellular dehydration and circulatory collapse. 2 Biological changes included haemoconcentration. He recovered following symptomatic treatment by infusion of saline and glucose solutions. 3 Ricin was quantified by a radioimmunologic method using Iodine 125, and showed that only a small part of the ricin contained in the seeds was absorbed.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D037121:Plant Lectins; D010947:Plants, Toxic; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D012276:Ricin / Q000097:blood / Q000506:poisoning* / Q000652:urine; D012278:Ricinus; D012639:Seeds; D013406:Suicide, Attempted
chemical_list: D037121:Plant Lectins; D012276:Ricin