Late fall is the perfect time of year to prepare horseradish sauce. Your horseradish plants have spent all spring and summer developing and growing delicious leaves (you’ve been snacking on those and throwing them into salads, right?), and now the first frost has appeared. Those tender leaves have died back and and the plant goes … Continue reading
Plant poisonings are a funny thing. Most people aren’t actively seeking out poisonous plants in which to eat, that would be dumb. Rather they mistake them for something else through an honest mistake, willful ignorance, or just plain foraging hubris. I hate foraging hubris. But I digress. Take the “Death Camas.” I’d like to believe … Continue reading
Dolls are creepy. I suspect that the only people that like dolls are the little kids that play with them and adults that might benefit from a psychological evaluation. I jest of course. Not really. It’s those glassy, vacant eyes that creep me out. And I’m sure those horror movies I watched as a kid … Continue reading
Now for something a little different. I like to write about Nature’s Poisons – their history, science, chemistry, and toxicology. It’s fun for me, and hopefully for you, too. But just because something is harmful or toxic, doesn’t mean it can’t be delicious. Take chile peppers and capsaicin, it may be potent and cause some … Continue reading
I’ve heard of indigenous peoples of the Amazon using plant-based poisons to kill, or catch, fish. But to be honest, I never really gave it much thought until a recent article on National Geographic about incorporating these traditional methods to help with a scientific survey investigating fish diversity on the Manu River. The Machiguenga people use the … Continue reading
A mystery writer friend asked me about oleander, the evergreen shrub that thrives throughout the southern United States, a little while back. Being the smart-ass that I am, I asked her who she was planning to kill and she said a dog. What, what, what? Relax, it’s a dog in the mystery novel she’s writing. … Continue reading
I’m not ashamed to say that I like root beer. There’s something about the herbal and woodsy flavors that I enjoy. It’s refreshing, but also a time machine. A sip of root beer brings me back to my childhood and makes me feel like a little kid again. More so than any other drink, it is classic … Continue reading
A while back I was happy to report that the Death Cap mushroom was aptly named, in contrast to so many things in life. Unfortunately, “wild ginger” is not such a plant. With a name like that you would suspect it to be related to commercialized ginger, but alas it’s not. And while the smell … Continue reading
I love chile peppers and spicy food. I grow up to a dozen varieties of chile peppers each year, and turn the fruits into sauces, spreads, and salsas. For me, nothing tastes better than fresh homemade salsa, a few dashes of my Tabasco-style sauce, or fresh Thai chiles in my Pad Kra Pao. And I’m … Continue reading
It’s no surprise that Nature has it in for us, I write about Natures’s poison, toxins, and venoms once or twice a week. In a surprise move, I’m not going to talk about poisons today. Instead I thought I’d showcase Nature’s Plan-B: sharp and pointy things. Note: In all honesty, I really just wanted an … Continue reading
A lot of things in life don’t make sense, and it seems I spend half my time trying to explain and rationalize these to my three young girls. They ask a lot of questions. A lot. Why do we park on a driveway? Why is something called a “free gift”, aren’t gifts always free? What’s … Continue reading
Before there was Sherlock Holmes and his trademark deerstalker cap, there was an English physician, Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle. And before that there was just plain old Arthur Conan Doyle, a student at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, and where we will begin. On September 20th, 1879 the British Medical Journal published a letter entitled “Gelseminum as … Continue reading
“The use of foxglove is getting abroad, and it is better the world should derive some instruction, however imperfect, from my experience, than that the lives of men should be hazarded by unguarded exhibition, or that a medicine of so much efficacy should be condemned and rejected as dangerous and unmanageable” This is from the … Continue reading
I’ve written about the dangers of nicotine before, and particularly about my theory of nicotine playing the part of poison in the death of Game of Throne’s King Joffrey. And lately e-cigarettes, or vaporizers, have become all the rage among consumers and media alike. So of course I’ve given my two-cents about potential e-cig and … Continue reading
Plant based medicines have been around nearly as long as humans, but one stands out more than all the others combined. The ancient Sumerians, circa 2000 BC, recorded the use of willow leaves to treat inflammation. The Ebers Papyrus, circa 1500 BC, one of the most important medical documents of ancient Egypt, references the use of … Continue reading
Homicidal poisonings are not nearly as common as people think or prime-time TV dramas would have you believe. The fact is, successfully poisoning someone takes work. One must first acquire the means to carry it out, which entails researching the poison and procuring it. Then a plan must be constructed so that the death appears … Continue reading
Conspiracy theories abound in today’s society. They captivate people’s imaginations in all forms of art, whether it be books, movies or music. We voraciously read Tom Clancy novels and immerse ourselves in the spy world of Jack Ryan, we watch the Jason Bourne trilogy (also a superb set of novels, by Robert Ludlum), and pour through Tupac … Continue reading
Often times the common names given to plants are due to their physical characteristics. Take the Brugmansia genus, for example, its common name is “Angel’s Trumpet.” By taking a look at these photos you can certainly see why it could be called such. It looks angelic, and certainly has a resemblance to an instrument in the … Continue reading
Kratom is one of my favorite plants and poisons. It ranks right up there with scopolamine and the Solanaceae plants it comes from. I talk about kratom in nearly every death investigation or drug talk I give – about two a year. But unlike scopolamine, it’s not the evilness of kratom that is alluring to me, rather I am … Continue reading
Everyone has heard of tequila, or at least I hope you have. There’s nothing better than a margarita on the rocks while resting in the shade on a hot summer day . . . except two margaritas. Most people are too busy rimming a cocktail glass with salt to think about where tequila comes from, thankfully, that’s … Continue reading
Nature's Poisons 