Glorious flower in the Garden

This is a bunch of Glori Lilies, also known as Flame Lily, Climbing lily & Gloriosa Lily, I found in our garden. This plant is a creeper & the tips of the leaves wrap around substrates. The scientific name is Gloriosa superba.
Even though the flowers are very beautiful, all parts of this flowering plant are toxic. The tubers are the most toxic part. The toxicity is mainly due to alkaloid Colchicine. The lethal dose varies from 6mg to 20mg.

The features of poisoning may develop 6hrs to 12hrs after ingestion. They include,

• Abdominal pain,
• Nausea & Vomiting
• Diarrhoea
• Bleeding manifestations (after 24hrs)
• Confusion, Convulsions & Coma
  

Management of the poisoning,

• Gastric Lavage,
• Multiple doses of Activated Charcoal,
• Correction of other complications such correcting dehydration & shock, correcting electrolyte imbalances
• Assisted ventilation if necessary
• Forced Diuresis within first 24hrs

(Reference: Ravindra Fernando (2002) Management of Poisoning, 2nd revised Ed. The National Poison Information Centre, NHSL, Colombo, pp 114-116.)


Some information on this plant can be found at,

• Poisonous Plants Gloriosa superba


• Detailed information on Gloriosa Lily

A detailed description of the poison Colchicine can be found at IPCS INCHEM

Puah had published a nice poem on this flower. Please read it too >> L'chaim"!: Temptation

WISH YOU A HAPPY NEW YEAR, err just a second…

Happy New Year !
Originally uploaded by couleurs gm.

This year, the New Year was delayed by one second. This is called a leap second. Last time such a leap second was added to our calendar was only seven years ago. This is done in order to synchronise our normal calendar which is astronomically based & mean solar time. The normal civil time is kept by atomic clocks which are extremely precise.
The leap second can be positive or negative & can be adjusted on 30th June or 31st December mid night.
So I was expecting them to display 23:59:60 or something like that before it became 00:00:00 on TV. But I was disappointed as the clock went from 23:59:59 to 00:00:00 as usual.
I wonder whether they have at least corrected that second later on.

You can read about it further at,

• Wikipedia
• The Future of Leap Seconds
• 2006 Postponed by One (Leap) Second

Also there’s a freeware utility that can be downloaded to synchronise your PC with the atomic clock, Atomic Clock Sync.