Two diners sickened by poisonous plant at northern Taiwan hotel ...

Taipei, Nov. 1 (CNA) Two patrons at a hotel restaurant in northern Taiwan were sickened last month after ingesting food from a bed of leaves of the poisonous alocasia odora plant, also known as night-scented lily, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Wednesday.

At a press briefing, Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), deputy head of the FDA's food safety division, said the poisoning occurred when toxic juices from the clipped leaves contaminated an order of fried rice that was served on top of them.

Around 10 minutes after consuming the rice, the diners noticed a stinging sensation in their throats and lips, and had trouble swallowing, Cheng said, adding that the cause of the poisoning was only determined when local health officials came to investigate the matter.

According to Cheng, Taiwan has historically seen a number alocasia odora poisoning cases, which sometimes occur when people misidentify the plant as taro.

Regarding the differences, Cheng said taro plants are distinguishable by their shield-shaped leaves, which are covered in fine hairs that often catch waterdrops, as well as the purple spots on their underground stems.

Alocasia odora, by contrast, has smooth and glossy leaves that are arrow-shaped at the base, along with yellowish underground stems, Cheng said.

The FDA said that despite the case in October, there were no alocasia odora poisonings among the 380 reports of food poisoning it received from January through August of this year, around one-third of which were norovirus infections.

In 2017, Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) -- then a Cabinet spokesman and later minister of the interior -- became ill on New Year's Day after eating alocasia odora stems from his garden that he had mistaken for taro.