Is the Angels Trumpet a dangerous plant?

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A member, Betty Belekis (@BettyB) posted a beautiful photo of the flower on her angel's trumpet. The Latin name for this plant is Brugmansia and there are seven species. These woody trees or shrubs have attractive, pendulous flowers that have a pleasant fragrance. However, all parts of the plant can be toxic. At our local writing group, we were spoken to once by a local author who had written about the dangers of this plant. She was desperately trying to get them banned from sale altogether. For years she had slept in a room, mostly with the window open and with an angel's trumpet planted outside the window. She had suffered significant health issues for many years. These subsided once she became aware of the possible negative effects of the plant. I can still remember how fervent she was in her wish to convey to us the dangers of the plant. The government website, Queensland Health, has this to say about the toxicity of this plant: “All parts of the plant are toxic. Symptoms may include intense thirst, difficulty with speech and swallowing, vomiting and diarrhoea, fever, confusion, hallucinations, delirium, dilated pupils, seizures and coma. Deaths have occurred. The perfume can cause respiratory irritation, headaches, nausea, and light-headedness. Eye contact with the sap may cause dilated pupils and temporary blindness.” Yet, on a healing essence website, they are selling this stuff. The description is suitably airy-fairy including: 'especially helpful for those in transition, those resisting letting go of material attachments, or those engaged in the literal dying process'. A good topic for another post would be the jargon used on these types of websites. It's worse than that used on wine labels. Here's some more phrases from the site: surrender inwardly..truly opened to joy…subtle insights and messages… integration and wholeness, etc, etc. Maybe some species are more toxic than others. Does anyone have anything to contribute on this subject? Any bad/good experiences? Photo courtesy: By Dave Whitinger (All Things Plants) [GFDL ( or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons