Are any plants that contain capsaicins or other related “hot” chemicals otherwise poisonous to humans? I know that concentrations of capsaicins themselves can be high enough to produce chemical burns.
I would suspect that they do not have other poisons, because it seems that capsaicin plants evolved to be eaten by birds, who are immune to capsaicins, and also do not digest the seeds which pass through them and are thus spread. So any human poison would also have to be non poisonous to birds.
I do not believe so, although some hybrids are sold as ornamentals, rather than garden plants. These are generally sold as ornamentals because they don’t taste good, though, not because they’re toxic. ETA: Of course, that depends on how you’re defining “toxic”. Capsaisin itself causes demyelinization of nerve cells, eventually, but not so much that reasonable people need to worry about it in their diet. But assuming you mean “toxic” the way a worried mother means, “don’t eat that plant, it’s poisonous!”, then no, capsicums are not toxic.
Of course, capsicums are part of the nightshade family, so they do have toxic cousins, but they’re fairly far removed.
While some hot peppers are really dang hot, and will make you *feel *like you’re getting a chemical burn, generally you need to heavily heavily concentrate the stuff to really get into actual chemical burn territory. Of course, any person may have a localized skin reaction to any plant, but even mace (concentrated capsaicin) doesn’t leave actual burns, just the feeling of burns.
Incidentally, capsaicin inspired one of my favorite here-then-gone posters on this board. Check out posts 7 and 16.
The fruits might not be poisonous, but what about the leaves? Tomatoes, for instance (another member of the nightshades) have wholesome fruit but toxic leaves.
I took a wild edibles course where we learned that all parts except the fruits were poisonous (for wild chilis anyway). The stems of the fruit can’t be though as no one could eat pickled peppers otherwise.
FWIW,
Rob
Not true
capsaicin does not actually cause a chemical burn, or indeed any direct tissue damage at all
I call this a distinction without a difference.
I once ate barbecue with so much red pepper on it that I got blisters on the inside my lips.
According to the Wikiipedia article you linked:
“Essentially, the body inflames tissues as if it has undergone a burn or abrasion and the resulting inflammation can cause tissue damage in cases of extreme exposure”
Yeah, but blisters are blisters.
patches of high concentration can be used to attempt to ease postherpetic neuralgia which might be effective for a few months. you need to be given topical pain killers before the two hour treatment.