Deaths following ingestion of a cardiotoxic plant in Kampuchean children in Thailand.

Twenty-seven Khmer children at a refugee camp in Thailand developed vomiting and diarrhea after ingestion of the seeds of the plant Erythrophleum succirubrum Gagnep. Two children died of cardiac arrest. Ingestion of seed of Erythrophleum species that contain digitalis-like alkaloids causes fatal epidemics of poisoning in children as well as livestock.