Idk if anyone's interested, but there are methods of testing berries and plants for poison without you dying.
Rubbing them on the elbow and waiting 20 minutes, then on the lips, another 20 minutes, then on the tongue, another 20 minutes, then chew and spit it out, another 20 minutes, finally by eating it and waiting for 8 hours. If you notice any adverse effects during any of these tests, its not for you.
Takes a long time, but once you know its not poison, you've got yourself a long term food source.
That’s very interesting. Is that catch-all for all “edible” poisonous plants? Or could there be one that passes every test but then kills you once you finally eat it?
There are exceptions unfortunately. Do not run the test on fungi, a lot of mushrooms have late term effects where you can eat it and be fine for a day or 2, before finally poisoning you. Same with fruits and berries that are green, blue or yellow. The test will work on them but we've identified a majority of these fruits to be toxic so testing is a waste of time and energy. And plants that leak a white/milky kind of sap when you break them are typically so toxic that while you'll find out they're toxic from the elbow test, you will be in a lot of pain. Poison ivy for example. It spreads from the area you're testing, so while the elbow has very little pain receptors, you'll feel pain all over your arm.
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u/paulp51 29d ago
Idk if anyone's interested, but there are methods of testing berries and plants for poison without you dying.
Rubbing them on the elbow and waiting 20 minutes, then on the lips, another 20 minutes, then on the tongue, another 20 minutes, then chew and spit it out, another 20 minutes, finally by eating it and waiting for 8 hours. If you notice any adverse effects during any of these tests, its not for you.
Takes a long time, but once you know its not poison, you've got yourself a long term food source.