# Are CYCAD (Plants) dangerous?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cycad-plants-dangerous/141041
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 6, 2002, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cycad-plants-dangerous/141041 "2002-12-06T22:54:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2002, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cycad-plants-dangerous/141041/1 "2002-12-06T22:54:27Z")
For those of you who are into house plants, the CYCADs are quite interesting. They look like miniature palm trees, but in reality, are unrelated to palms. They are extremely ancient plants-they were around in the days of the dinosaurs! Anyway, I met a man who had lived on the island of Guam for many years, and he told me that these plants (Cycads) are very poisonous! The native people of Guam have used the seeds of the cuycad plants as a food source foryears (they mash the seeds into a kind of paste, which is made into bread). This has resulted in the highest rate of early-adult senility in the world! (Many Guamanians become senile in their 40’s!). The cycad (apparently) contains a toxin which destroys human brain cells\> So, is it dangerous to have these plants in your house?😕
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### Author:  [@Primaflora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Primaflora)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2002, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cycad-plants-dangerous/141041/2 "2002-12-06T23:12:29Z")
No.
It’s dangerous if you eat them but they are perfectly safe as plant objects.
Oliver Sacks covers this in his book _Island of the Colour Blind_. Nope, that title looks wrong. In any case Sacks wrote about it in detail in one of his books.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2002, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cycad-plants-dangerous/141041/3 "2002-12-06T23:14:22Z")
No, just don’t eat the seeds. And _especially_ don’t eat any fruitbats who may have been eating the seeds.
Oliver Sacks, the author of _Awakenings_, discussed the possible connection between cycad seeds and early-onset senility in his book [Island of the Colorblind/Cycad Island](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375700730/qid%3D1016807877/sr%3D1-1/ref%3Dsr%5F1%5F1/102-5389901-9632931)
Sacks’ favored hypothesis now is that the senility was cause not by eating the seeds themselves, but eating fruitbats which had consumed the seeds and concentrated the neurotoxin in their fat: [ALS-PDC cluster on Guam linked to eating fruit bats](http://www.rideforlife.com/MT/archives/als_news/000197.html). However, I don’t think that this has been conclusively prven as yet.
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### Author:  [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2002, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cycad-plants-dangerous/141041/4 "2002-12-06T23:20:39Z")
Is he talking about the sago palm?
[http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/poison/Cycasre.htm](http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/poison/Cycasre.htm)
> [@](#):
>
> Poisonous Part
> Fleshy seeds, leaves, unprocessed flour from stem pith
>
> Severity
> TOXIC ONLY IF LARGE QUANTITIES EATEN.
But get this…
> [@](#):
>
> Edibility
> EDIBLE PARTS: Processed flour.
If you process the pith into flour properly, it isn’t toxic, but if you eat it raw, it’ll make you sick.
Basic way to process it.
[http://www.szgdocent.org/ff/f-sago.htm](http://www.szgdocent.org/ff/f-sago.htm)
> [@](#):
>
> There are many ways of extracting the starch from Sago Palms, but there are basic similarities: The palm is harvested just before it flowers, when starch content is at maximum. The palm is cut down and split length-wise into half. To extract the starch, the centre of the palm stem is broken up, then the starch washed out. The resulting thick white starch suspension is sieved and collected, then dried in the sun or over a fire to produce dry sago flour.
You can buy sago flour at health food stores–it’s for people who have gluten intolerance (celiac sprue) and can’t eat wheat flour.
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### Author:  [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2003, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cycad-plants-dangerous/141041/5 "2003-07-08T19:22:39Z")
I know, this is an old old topic, but this deserves some clarification. The Sago Duck Duck Goose is describing comes from Metroxylon a species of palm, which is NOT the sago (a species of cycad) mentioned by the OP. Similar name, but two different types of plants.
Palm sago needs only to be separated from the trunk pith. Cycad Sago needs leaching in order to remove toxins.
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### Author:  [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2003, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cycad-plants-dangerous/141041/6 "2003-07-08T21:42:42Z")
Okay, but to hijack… does anybody know anything about starting Sago palms from the seeds? My sago (in Florida, they’re practically weeds) produced seeds last season. I grabbed a few and stuck 'em in a pot full of soil, hoping they’d germinate. Although I don’t plan to eat them… any clues about getting the seeds to germinate?
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2003, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cycad-plants-dangerous/141041/7 "2003-07-08T21:56:45Z")
(from memory) I believe they may require a very long germination period - it might be as well to seal the pot in a clear plastic bag so that you don’t have to keep watering it.
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### Author:  [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2003, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cycad-plants-dangerous/141041/8 "2003-07-08T23:41:00Z")
I hope their not. I have one about 6 feet high in my back yard which is, as best I can determine, a [macrozamia johnsonii](http://www.pacsoa.org.au/cycads/Macrozamia/johnsonii.html)
It hasn’t attacked me yet.
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### Author:  [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2003, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cycad-plants-dangerous/141041/9 "2003-07-11T06:45:29Z")
Make sure the flesh is cleaned off (the fleshy outer seed coat), Then:
The conventional method of germination is to place the cleaned seeds on their sides half buried on washed sand or potting mix, It is necessary to keep the medium moist but not too wet for as long as it takes to germinate them. An easier method is to use vermiculite. Get a plastic container with a lid (ice cream containers can be used) and fill with dry vermiculite to within about 30mm from the top. Tip half the vermiculite out into a bucket and soak in water. Drain it and then thoroughly mix with the other (dry) half. Put it into the container and place the seeds on it, partly (or completely) covered with the vermiculite. Close the lid and keep warm (preferably 25-30° C). Check weekly or fortnightly to see that the vermiculite is still moist. Blow on it- if it scatters it’s dry. Use a fine mist spray to just moisten the vermiculite. Pick up a seed and look at the part in contact with the medium - it should be slightly moist.
Once you get germinated seeds:
A good mix that is well drained should be used to plant the seedlings. It should contain about one third medium grade sand and other components can be well composted coarse sawdust or very fine pinebark. Ingredients which decompose fairly rapidly, and let the mix become soggy, should not be used. (Air filled porosity of the mix should be about 20%). Containers used for potting should be as tall as possible. To save room several seedlings may be put in a 200mm or 250mm planter but of course great care must be taken when separating them later for individual planting. Small roots are very fragile and planting in individual containers is to be preferred. Slow release fertilizer may be used together with occasional watering with liquid fertilizer containing trace elements, particularly chelated iron. Some slow release fertilizers already contain extra iron and trace elements so the liquid feed may not be required. Most cycads can be watered quite freely so long as the mix drains very well. With good cultivation practices growth can be reasonably rapid and the results very rewarding.
from: [http://www.pacsoa.org.au/cycads/Articles/germination.html](http://www.pacsoa.org.au/cycads/Articles/germination.html)