Possible Sources of Food Toxicants

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Abstract
Fact and fiction are closely entwined in the matter of poisonous plants. We all know they exist and were brought up on tales where poisonous mushrooms or berries were used with deadly effect, and as children we were all warned against eating strange berries however attractive they might look. Which plants are poisonous and which are not is a less straightforward question than might be thought, because hemlock and deadly nightshade only represent one end of a broad spectrum that shades imperceptibly from those we know to avoid to those like carrots or apples or strawberries that we accept and eat without hesitation. The appearance of a plant is no clue to its character; only generations of experience has led us to select certain species for our food and taught us how they should be prepared. The majority of cases of plant poisoning occur among children or, less often, among adults who have either misidentified a plant (pokeweed for radish, tubers of gloriosa superba for yam) or misused it in home medication.

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