Epidemic Dropsy. A New Test for Argemone Oil

Epidemic dropsy is a disease occurring in epidemic or endemic form characterized clinically by (edema, erythema, cutaneous nodules, diarrhoea, cardiac failure, glaucoma and/or abortion in pregnant women. Pathologically there is an extensive dilatation and engorgement of the capillaries in the skin and the internal organs. Its ajtiology has been traced to the use of adulterated mustard oil, the chief cooking fat of a large section of the Indian population. Subsequent work has shown that the disease is primarily a toxic condition produced by the adulterant argemone oil which is extracted from the seeds of the plant Argemone mexicana that grows wild.