"Cereus-validus..." wrote:
Phytotoxicity and sensitivity to plant toxins has nothing to do
with diabetes.

In logic, what you are alluding to is called "false cause" also
know as coincidence.

I'll go along with that. However it could be that there was
an allergic reaction to the poinsettas that caused the diabetes.

My logic for that goes like this. Diabetes is usually considered
an autoimmunal disease where the pancreatic cells that produce
insulin are attacked and killed. And if there is an allergy to a
specific substance, that in turn can produce an autoimmunal
response which in turn can kill pancreatic cells and thus the
condition of diabetes becomes present. I don't have any
proof of this being true... just food for thought.

In fact, with all the talk about poinsettas being poisonous,
anyone with an allergy to a poinsetta could possibly die from
contact. I won't state that that is 100% true, because I never
witnessed it, but it's definitely better to be safe than sorry.

--
Jim Carlock
Post replies to newsgroup.

"madgardener" wrote:
And that might be because she was diabetic. My grandmammy
as I recall broke out when handling the poinsettia that was given
her around Christmas when
she "fooled with it" and so the task of caring for it during the Christmas
season fell onto Pearline who adored and loved any flower or
plant...(another recessed memory regarding my sweet Aunt Pearline
who was responsible for my gardening madness surfaces.....)
madgardener who believes that poinsettia's are not TOXIC.....can be
irritating to some people and who loves all the diversities of the
poinsettia's but doesn't grow or have them herself (my cacti
and succulents and few tropicals and ferns suffer enough in my
warm, dry house, thank you)
up on the ridge, back in Fairy Holler, overlooking English Mountain in
Eastern Tennessee