Everyday we chow down on
food produced from plants that carry deadly poisons. Most of the time we don’t
need to be concerned with this as the mass production of fruit and vegetables
ensures that we are usually safe, but from time to time people accidentally
kill themselves by unwittingly eating the wrong part of a plant. In order to
ensure that this never happens to you, I have put together a list of the most
commonly seen poisons that we come in to contact with in our kitchens.
-- Mushrooms --
We have all heard of
toadstools – and know that they are poisonous, but what many people don’t know
is that a toadstool is actually a mushroom, not a separate type of plant.
Toadstool is slang for “poisonous mushroom”. While there are some useful signs
that a mushroom is poisonous, they are not consistent and all mushrooms of
unknown origin should be considered dangerous to eat. Some of the things you
can look for to try to determine whether a mushroom is poisonous are: it should
have a flat cap with no bumps, it should have pink or black gills (poisonous
mushrooms often have white gills), and the gills should stay attached to the
cap (not the stalk) if you pull it off. But remember, while this is generally
true of many types of mushroom, it is not always true.
-- PufferFish --
A few days ago we
had a list of embarrassing deaths, one of which included death by eating the
liver of a fugu (pufferfish). The fugu is so poisonous that in Japan, fugu
chefs are trained specially for the job and are tested before being a given
certificates of practice. The training takes two or three years. In order to
pass, the chef must answer a written test then give a demonstration of his
cutting abilities. The final part of the test involves the chef eating the
pieces of fugu that he has cut. Only 30% of apprentices pass the test – which
is not to say that the rest die by eating their fugu – they can fail in earlier
parts of the test. Only the flesh of the fugu is consumed as it is less likely
to have high amounts of poison (which causes a slight tingling sensation in the
mouth). Fugu is the only food officially illegal for the Emperor of Japan to
eat – for his safety.
-- ElderBerry --
Elderberry trees are
very attractive and quite large. They are covered with thousands of tiny
flowers which have a delicate scent. The flowers are used mainly for making
elderflower liqueur and soda. Sometimes the flowers are eaten after being battered
and deep fried. But beneath the pretty surface lurks danger! The roots and some
other parts of the elderberry tree are highly poisonous and will cause severe
stomach problems. So next time you decide to pick some elderberry flowers for
eating, be sure to eat just the flowers.
-- Castor Oil --
Castor oil, the bane
of many of our childhoods, is regularly added to candies, chocolate, and other
foods. Furthermore, many people still consume a small amount daily or force it
on their unwilling children. Fortunately the castor oil we buy is carefully
prepared, because the castor bean is so deadly, that it takes just one bean to
kill a human, and four to kill a horse. The poison is ricin, which is so toxic
that workers who collect the seeds have strict safety guidelines to prevent
accidental death. Despite this, many people working in the fields gathering the
seeds suffer terrible side-effects.
-- Almonds --
Almonds are one of
the most useful and wonderful of seeds (it is not a nut as many people would
have you believe). It has a unique taste and its excellent suitability for use
in cooking have made it one of the most popular ingredients in pastry kitchens
for centuries. The most flavorsome almonds are bitter almonds (as opposed to
“sweet” almonds). They have the strongest scent and are the most popular in
many countries. But there is one problem: they are full of cyanide. Before
consumption, bitter almonds must be processed to remove the poison. Despite
this requirement, some countries make the sale of bitter almonds illegal (New
Zealand regretfully is one of them). As an alternative, you can use the pip
from an apricot stone which has a similar flavor and poison content. Heating
destroys the poison. In fact, you may not know that it is now illegal in the
USA to sell raw almonds – all almonds sold are now heat-treated to remove
traces of poison and bacteria.
-- Alfalfa Sprout --
Alfalfa sprouts, like potatoes, should be
avoided in large quantities, and if the raw foodist prefers, avoided
altogether. Recent studies have found that a key ingredient, Canavanine, when
fed to monkeys, creates a Lupus-like disease. For the human, it would take
quite a bit of uncooked alfalfa to cause a similar condition, but of course
that is up to the individual.
-- Parsnip --
Parsnip is actually both toxic cooked and raw.
Parsnip contains psoralens, which is toxic at either state of chemistry, so you
should not eat raw.
-- Cherries --
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Cherries are a very
popular fruit – used in cooking, liqueur production, or eaten raw. They are
from the same family as plums, apricots, and peaches. All of the previously
mentioned fruits contain highly poisonous compounds in their leaves and seeds.
Almonds are also a member of this family but they are the only fruit which is
harvested especially for its seeds. When the seeds of cherries are crushed,
chewed, or even slightly injured, they produce prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide).
Next time you are eating cherries, remember not to suck on or chew the pip.
-- Grains --
Most grains contain antinutrients which make
ingestion of them raw-toxic. This is why it is recommended that if you do want
to eat grains raw, that you first soak them in accordance to safe soaking
instructions.
-- Apples --
Like the previous
two items, apple seeds also contain cyanide – but obviously in much smaller
doses. Apple seeds are very often eaten accidentally but you would need to chew
and consume a fairly high number to get sick. There are not enough seeds in one
apple to kill, but it is absolutely possible to eat enough to die. I recommend
avoiding apple eating competitions! Incidentally, if you want to eat an apple
and find a worm in it (and hopefully not half a worm), you can drop it in a
bowl of salt water which will kill the worm.
-- Rhubarb --
Rhubarb is a very
underrated plant – it produces some of the nicest tasting puddings and is
incredibly easy to grow at home. Rhubarb is something of a wonder plant – in
addition to an unknown poison in its leaves, they also contain a corrosive
acid. If you mix the leaves with water and soda, it becomes even more potent.
The stems are edible (and incredibly tasty) and the roots have been used for
over 5,000 years as a laxitive and poop-softener.
-- Tomatoes --
First off, a little
interesting trivia: in the US, thanks to a US Supreme Court decision in 1893,
tomatoes are vegetables. In the rest of the world they are considered to be
fruit (or more accurately, a berry). The reason for this decision was a tax on
vegetables but not fruit. You may also be interested to know that technically,
a tomato is an ovary. The leaves and stems of the tomato plant contain a
chemical called “Glycoalkaloid” which causes extreme nervousness and stomach
upsets. Despite this, they can be used in cooking to enhance flavor, but they
must be removed before eating. Cooking in this way does not allow enough poison
to seep out but can make a huge difference in taste. Finally, to enhance the
flavor of tomatoes, sprinkle a little sugar on them. Now we just need to work
out whether they are “toe-mah-toes” or “toe-may-toes”.
-- Potatoes --
Potatoes have
appeared in our history books since their introduction to Europe in the 16th
century. Unfortunately they appear largely due to crop failure and severe
famine, but they will be forever the central vegetable of most western families
daily diet. Potatoes (like tomatoes) contain poison in the stems and leaves –
and even in the potato itself if left to turn green (the green is due to a high
concentration of the glycoalkaloid poison). Potato poisoning is rare, but it
does happen from time to time. Death normally comes after a period of weakness
and confusion, followed by a coma. The majority of cases of death by potato in
the last fifty years in the USA have been the result of eating green potatoes
or drinking potato leaf tea.
Source : http://listverse.com
