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tripsis

When Edible Plants Turn Their Defences On Us

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Interesting. There must be a shit-tonne of oxalic acid in rhubarb leaves to cause a reaction like that. I always knew they were inedible but didn't know oxalic acid was the culprit, or that it could have such dire effects.

Especially considering it's in a lot of plants - like spinach, purslane...there's heaps I can't remember. I heard that cooking breaks it down though? Not sure how it could have actually killed that woman if that was the case (it said she fried them up)?

Found an interesting page on it at Eat The Weeds where it mentions a 53-year-old guy dying from eating 500g of sorrel in a soup, which reportedly contained 6-7g of oxalic acid in total. I had no idea so little could be so dangerous - I mean 500g is a lot of sorrel, but it's not beyond the realm of "I might eat that"...because sorrel is delicious.

And yeah, the grey area between edible and inedible is really interesting I think, nice find :)

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