Is tasting plants dangerous

[WhyNot]

@Jackmannii

I suspect this is another situation where individual tolerances vary widely, or there are other (unreported) factors.*

I grow Brugmansias (a genus related to Datura, and also poisonous). In fall I strip the leaves off by hand in preparation for taking the potted plants indoors for their dormant period. I don’t wear gloves when doing this and have never had any reaction whatsoever.

If Datura was highly toxic to the touch, there’d be tons of reported casualties in areas where jimsonweed grows rampantly. Doesn’t seem to have happened.

Certainly. This was an indoor plant, which may have affected the concentration of atropine and scopolamine in it. It was huge, much larger than her, and she was (is) a tiny woman - 5" and less than 100 pounds, and she pruned a lot of it at once, then took all the trimmings (leaves, stalks, dead flowers and seed pods) and wadded them up and rolled the ball in her hands before depositing it in the trash. Basically, think of everything you shouldn’t do with a psychotropic plant, and she did it, because she just wasn’t thinking. It’s not like she was unaware of the effects of datura - she was a professional herbalist and teacher of gardening and herbalism, for goodness sake. If anything, she was brought down by hubris.

But it’s not very deadly. It only kills a couple of people a year, and those are generally young people intentionally trying to get high on it by eating the seeds or drinking a tea made of them. It’ll mess your day up pretty badly though, even if it doesn’t kill you. There are plenty of educational outreach efforts where it’s commonly grown. The CDC recommends that news stories and public education efforts emphasize the dangers, while not including detailed descriptions, pictures or diagrams of the plants - when it’s reported on, usage goes up. Because, people.

Although most cases of Jimson weed poisoning in the United States occur sporadically, increased incidence or clustering of cases may follow press and broadcast reports that heighten interest in – but do not emphasize the adverse effects of – Jimson weed ingestion. In 1993, the American Association of Poison Control Centers Toxic Exposure Surveillance System received 318 reports of Jimson weed exposure. Although the total number of reported exposures to Jimson weed did not rank among the 20 most frequently reported exposures to poisonous plants Table_1 (5), telephone calls to poison-control centers about Jimson weed poisoning are more likely than those about other hallucinogens to prompt a need for medical care (6). Poisoning associated with Jimson weed can be prevented through education of health-care providers and by press and broadcast reports to the public that emphasize the health hazards of Jimson weed ingestion, but that reduce access to the plant by omitting detailed descriptions and drawings and photographs.

Epidemiologic Notes and Reports Jimson Weed Poisoning -- Texas, New York, and California, 1994

[Malthus]

@WhyNot

Certainly. This was an indoor plant, which may have affected the concentration of atropine and scopolamine in it. It was huge, much larger than her, and she was (is) a tiny woman - 5" and less than 100 pounds, and she pruned a lot of it at once, then took all the trimmings (leaves, stalks, dead flowers and seed pods) and wadded them up and rolled the ball in her hands before depositing it in the trash. Basically, think of everything you shouldn’t do with a psychotropic plant, and she did it, because she just wasn’t thinking. It’s not like she was unaware of the effects of datura - she was a professional herbalist and teacher of gardening and herbalism, for goodness sake. If anything, she was brought down by hubris.

But it’s not very deadly. It only kills a couple of people a year, and those are generally young people intentionally trying to get high on it by eating the seeds or drinking a tea made of them. It’ll mess your day up pretty badly though, even if it doesn’t kill you. There are plenty of educational outreach efforts where it’s commonly grown. The CDC recommends that news stories and public education efforts emphasize the dangers, while not including detailed descriptions, pictures or diagrams of the plants - when it’s reported on, usage goes up. Because, people.

Epidemiologic Notes and Reports Jimson Weed Poisoning -- Texas, New York, and California, 1994

Heh, reminds me of what one old hippie told me about amanita muscaria (the “fly agaric” mushroom): “Yeah, you can get high eating this. But nobody ever does that twice.”

People keep trying it because, well, people like to get high, and it is common. But apparently, it is really, really nasty.