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Plant-based poisons that kill humans

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Gormur

Gormur

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I've been trying to locate plants or plant-based poisons that are fatal to humans in order to compile a list, but even looking through articles online all I found was a short article about hemlock but it doesn't say whether or not it's actually fatal to humans at any dosage; pretty much useless

I know cyanide and strychnine are toxic, but this isn't what I'm after. Even there though it seems like we don't know exactly how much it takes to kill a person. This isn't vital information to me, I'm just very curious as it's good to know what to look out for when dealing with plants

Cheers,
Lance
 
I thought that Atropa Belladonna, also known as Deadly Nightshade, would fit the bill?

Interestingly enough I have, lying around somewhere, a “one pot” synthesis for Fentanyl that involves the extraction of some or the other compound from the above as a precursor. Not sure of its accuracy or validity though.

Dunno if it helps but I remember watching a video on YouTube a while ago about a garden in the UK that contains just about all known poisonous and deadly plants on the planet (well those that are able to survive in the UK in this garden anyway). I will try find it for you (unless you do a search yourself i.e. I’ll only get to it tomorrow I’m afraid).
 
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Here you go. This is just a short insert on “The Poison Garden”. There’s another longer documentary floating around there somewhere. Also and in just searching YouTube using the keywords “deadly plants garden” there’s piles of videos detailing these plants.

 
Gormur said:
Yeah, a lot of these are toxic but not fatal which was my point
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A basic premise of toxicology is that the dose makes the poison. A corollary to that is that any compound will be lethal (i.e. kill some who consume it) and eventually fatal (i.e. kill all who consume it) once the dose is high enough, although that dose may be extremely high. A more useful target would be a list of compounds/plants with an estimated human LD50 (dose that will kill half of those who consume it) below x, where x is some reasonably low dose. The downside of that is that human LD50 estimation is a highly inaccurate exercise, so mouse or rat LD50s could be used as well, with the caveat that the relative toxicity of compounds does not always follow the same order in those mammals that is does in humans.
 
There's a reason why the information is not available in an easy to compile list, and it's because it will be used for evil purposes. I'm a licensed herbalist and I know all the poisonous plants. Some are even useful as medicines. We generally don't educate the public on this topic because we don't want our important medicines taken away from us by people using them for ignorant or evil purposes.

Most deadly plant species are not commonplace. With the exception of a few cultivar species which are widely known to be toxic and therefore handled with care, you won't find poisonous plants in people's gardens. So there's no need to be "curious" because you won't ever encounter a dilemma where you need to be careful or else end up dying.
 
G_Chem said:
Castor bean is deadly poison as well.
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For ONCE I can correct YOU (although it's probably just semantics):

It's actually the SEEDS (which are incorrectly, although commonly nevertheless, referred to as BEANS). And it's a process too i.e. simply swallowing a couple of SEEDS isn't going to do the trick. Not that easy either i.e. in true Hollywood fashion it was oversold in "Breaking Bad".

A little factoid for the OP (although not too sure this falls into the category of "plant based poisons") but for fun...

Did you know that apple seeds (pips) contain small amounts of a compound known as "amygdalin" which breaks down to cyanide when consumed? In minute amounts of course. It can also be extracted but you need a shitpile of apple seeds (pips) to make a lethal dose of cyanide. Here's a fun link (even has a nice little table to compare different fruits and the amount of amygdalin in each):

www.theguardian.com

Cyanide in fruit seeds: how dangerous is an apple?

The seeds, pips and stones of many varieties of fruit contain small amounts of cyanide, so here’s your handy guide on the pips not to eat
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

What can I say. I've been down some very interesting rabbit holes in the last few months and have become a mine of useless information on certain topics! Lol!
 
Foreigner said:
There's a reason why the information is not available in an easy to compile list, and it's because it will be used for evil purposes.
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I just googled “list of plants that are toxic to humans” and got about 1,000 lists covering what must have been 1,000 different plants. A quick peruse of a few showed they contained a wealth of easy to digest (pun intended) information about plant identification, seasonality, geographic dispersion, toxicity and more.

Mention of alternative medicine also reminded me of this little beauty:

 
The Wizard of the Creek said:
Native Americans use to concentrate nicotine from tobacco plants to poison their arrow tips. It’s become relatively easy these days with nicotine vape juice concentrates to easily poison a dart/arrow tips. FYI
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It’s the practical life advice you get on BL that really justifies the subscription price.
 
The Wizard of the Creek said:
Native Americans use to concentrate nicotine from tobacco plants to poison their arrow tips. It’s become relatively easy these days with nicotine vape juice concentrates to easily poison a dart/arrow tip. FYI
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Funny you should mention this. Pure/concentrated nicotine is fatal in relatively small doses. Another little factoid I discovered at some point. Crazy shit (especially if you think that I've been smoking since about 15 i.e. for 40 years or so?).

And let's not get started on animal stuff (I know that'd be WAY off topic). But just yesterday: I watched a video (Sam Harris) talking about some or the other saliva of some or the frog that when vaporized and smoked it only takes one hit and you're into heroic dose psychedelic territory (I forget the compound it actually is i.e. it does have a name and which I'm sure will be all too familiar to many around these parts).
 
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