Most Delicious Poison: The Story of Nature's Toxins—From Spices to Vices

by Noah Whiteman

As sixteenth-century Swiss physician Paracelsus noted, “the dose makes the poison.”

Natural selection acts on heritable differences between individuals to improve their odds of survival or reproductive output over time.

All plants produce chemicals that they can deploy as poisons to eliminate the competition, dissuade herbivores, neutralize pathogens, and punish unfaithful pollinators.

alcohol use disorder (AUD) had caused her own liver to fail. AUD is the clinical term now used in place of alcoholism.

The insecticidal powder I used was made from the crushed, dried flowers of daisies classified as Chrysanthemum and, later, as Pyrethrum. Pyrethrum powder remains one of the safest and most widely used natural pesticides in the world.

The lesson? Pick your poison—carefully. The origin story of each of these chemicals holds critical information on why the benefits may or may not outweigh the costs for human use. There is nothing inherently healthy about natural

Wormwood is another member of the daisy family, and although its name may seem exotic, it is a close relative of the sagebrush that typifies the landscapes of the American West in both sight and smell.

Wormwood contains a plethora of toxins. One is a terpenoid called artemisinin, which was discovered by physician Tu Youyou in China in 1972 as a treatment for malaria. Her research landed her the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015, and artemisinin remains the gold standard for an antimalarial drug.

Romans called it herba militaris, and later, yarrows were given the name Achillea. Yarrow is known colloquially as bloodwort or nosebleed for its anticoagulant effects.

shows some promise in protecting against a variety of diseases, from diabetes to dementia, at low doses. Infusions of green tea in hot water or food, like those made from matcha, my favorite green tea powder, are generally safe.

Salicylic acid, aspirin, and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen and naproxen (and possibly the chamazulene from chamomile) suppress the production of hormones called prostaglandins. Prostaglandins play a key role in turning on the inflammatory response in our bodies, causing inflammation and pain.

Chronic inflammation is a killer, leading to cancer, cardiovascular disease, dementia, diabetes, and an array of other serious health conditions.

Evolution applies the similarities and differences between plants (and other organisms, like fungi and bacteria) and animals to various organisms’ advantage. Plants have evolved to produce diverse chemicals that manipulate animal brains and brawn to their own ends, whether to keep us away or to draw us in. In turn, we have turned the tables ourselves and can tap into these chemicals as medicines and for other purposes.

Just by eating a lot of plant-based foods, for example, we can attain levels of salicylic acid on par with people following a daily low-dose aspirin regimen. So, you may have experienced the anti-inflammatory effects of this chemical without ever knowing it.

The parsley family Apiaceae includes carrots, celery, cilantro, cumin, dill, fennel, parsley, and poison hemlock.

Although nobody thinks of grapefruit juice as toxic, it can enhance the toxicity of many prescription drugs and even some over-the-counter ones.

the consensus is now that overall, any alcohol consumption, even one drink a day, carries health risks, including higher risk of cancer, liver disease, heart disease, and death in accidents.

forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku in Japanese—encountering a forest with all five senses—may bring many health benefits, including reduced stress, anger, anxiety, depression, and fatigue and improved immune function, mood, vigor, and sleep patterns.

Blood flow throughout the brain increases after short periods of eucalyptol inhalation in humans, and eucalyptol produced antianxiety effects in mice when administered orally.

Orchids, over thirty thousand species strong, are more diverse than any other plant family. Vanilla beans are really the fruits of the vanilla orchid, native to Mexico,

Blue and violet flowers tend to be bee-pollinated, while orange and red flowers—colors bees can’t see well—are often bird-pollinated because most birds can see red well. Orange and red are private color “channels” that plants evolved to advertise to their “subscribers” of a feathered variety.

Grasses account for about twelve thousand species worldwide. We rely on grasses more than we do for any other plant family for our daily nutritional needs. Barley, corn, millet, oats, rice, sorghum, sugarcane, and wheat collectively provide over half of our daily caloric intake.

The poison can be the cure. Although there is no guarantee, the life-giving and life-ending powers of these chemicals can be seen as two sides of the same coin.

Beyond the potential cardiovascular protection of coffee, coffee drinking is also associated with dramatically lower risk of Parkinson’s disease in observational studies.

drinking three to six cups of coffee or tea daily reduced the risk of dementia by 28 percent and stroke-induced dementia by 48 percent.

The initial recipe for this patent medicine included coca leaf extract and caffeine extracted from cola (or kola) tree nuts from Africa, hence the name Coca-Cola. The product went on sale on May 8, 1886, at the soda fountains of Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta, where it was marketed to a white clientele as a temperance drink and “an esteemed brain tonic and intellectual beverage.”

For example, carvacrol, thymol, eugenol, and other phenolic and terpenoid chemicals found in the essential oils of oregano, thyme, and clove activate these TRPV3 receptors when the oils are rubbed into the skin.

For example, grapes, raisins, and tamarinds contain high levels of tartaric acid, which can cause acute kidney failure in dogs when ingested.

plants in the genus Allium, including chives, garlic, leeks, onions, ramps, and shallots. Such plants are highly toxic to both cats and dogs owing to disulfides, which cause anemia, partly by reducing the activity of G6PD in a process similar to what occurs in favism.

We step over that bitter or burning or nauseating bar because we know that if we do, we will end up feeling a sensation we desire, a sensation we grow to need.

Mustard oils are being studied as a chemotherapy for cancer and as treatments for neurodegenerative disorders, autism spectrum disorder, and traumatic brain injuries, among other disorders. I

Small clinical trials have found that sulforaphane pills reduce symptoms of autism spectrum disorder. This finding is exciting, but again, it is very preliminary.

First, spices prevent spoilage, a major cause of bacterially mediated food poisoning.

Small double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials show that saffron may be as effective at treating depression as the generic form of fluoxetine (Prozac).