TUBIGON, Bohol – Twenty elementary students fell ill Wednesday on Batasan Island in this town after eating seeds of the Jatropha curcas, locally known as tuba-tuba.
The students of Batasan Elementary School were brought by their distraught parents to the Tubigon Community Hospital. One was brought to the St. Joseph Clinic while one student, who was described to be the most ill of the group, was referred to the Celestino Gallares Regional Hospital.
The students were declared to be out of danger yesterday morning and were discharged from the hospitals.
Doctor Adoracion Torregosa told Sun.Star Superbalita that the students fell ill on Wednesday on their way home from school.
Torregosa said one of the students spotted a Jathropa plant and started eating its seeds. She said the student may have found the seeds delicious and invited the others to try.
A few hours after eating the seeds, the students started to vomit and complain of stomach pains.
The parents reportedly started to panic when the children started exhibiting symptoms of being poisoned. They were attended to by Barangay midwife Fe Barong.
They were then brought to the town proper via pump boats. Batasan Island is a 30-minute boat ride away from the town proper.
At the Tubigon port, the students were met by Municipal Health Officer Bob Batausa, who had been alerted via text messaging by Barong.
Torregosa said all the students have been treated and were sent home yesterday morning.
The Jatropha curcas seeds can cause vomiting, according to a paper at the website of the Bureau of Plant Industry of the Department of Agriculture.
“A dose of 1 to 4 seeds is a mild purgative; an overdose is a drastic purgative-causing vomiting, purging, and violent inflammation of the mucous membrane of the stomach and intestines,” the paper said. (Pergen Soquillo of Sun.Star Superbalita)
