Pacific Northwest Plants

Rheum Rhaponticum

Plate 338 Plate 339

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Rheum Rhaponticum: Rhubarb.

These photos were made in March 2003 in Vancouver BC.

I can still remember my childhood days and the smells that came from the kitchen while my mother cooked up batches of Rhubarb from our Garden. The simmering Rhubarb filled the house with unmistakable odors that spelled out yummy treats ahead with hot rhubarb sauce on ice cream, or further baking with Rhubarb pie.

The pleasant acidity smell and taste of Rhubarb is derived largely from its malic acid content. Citric and Oxalic acids are found mainly in the leaf blade.. The content of oxalic acid and soluble oxalates may be sufficiently great on occasion to cause relatively small amounts of the blade to be potentially lethal.

Poisoning of domestic livestock from rhubarb leaf blades is recorded in world literature, and outbreaks of human poisoning have occurred from time to time. During World War 1, in an effort to conserve food materials, an official recommendation was publicized in England that persons should utilize the blades as well as the petioles (red stalks) of rhubarb. Several cases of severe poisoning and death resulted.

Symptoms of poisoning include staggering, excessive salivation, and death in convulsions. Severe intermittent abdominal pains, vomiting, and weakness are also experienced. It is also noted that the blood does not clot properly. Death occurred 3-5 hours after appearance of symptoms.