RE: Eating Aesculus californica seeds?
- To: "'B*@monterey.edu'"
- Subject: RE: Eating Aesculus californica seeds?
- From: R* R*
- Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1999 08:29:44 +0800
I was just discussing the merits of eating known toxic plants
and their seeds with my brother yesterday. Most of these highly
poisonous seeds can have their toxin levels lowered but usually
there are low enough levels left to have some chronic long term effect.
Some examples we discussed were the flour made from toxic seeds from a
pacific island plant (brother couldn't remember the name)
which was commonly eaten by the locals. The islanders
knew the seeds were toxic and went to great lengths to leach the
toxins. Curiously the flour was never touched by insects and the
islands have documented elevated levels of senile dementia
in people 15-20 years younger than anywhere else.
Similiar example for Australian aboriginals with Zamia seed,
highly poisonous and needing a lot of leaching and treatment
before considered edible. But with their relatively short lifespan
with the hard conditions they lived under who knows what chronic
effects these toxins may have had??
Might be OK to try once but heh you'd really not want to
get the detox procedure wrong...
Cheers, Rod
> ----------
> From: Barry_Garcia@monterey.edu
> Reply To: Barry_Garcia@monterey.edu
> Sent: Sunday, 19 September 1999 4:50 PM
> To: medit-plants@ucdavis.edu
> Subject: Eating Aesculus californica seeds?
>
> Hey all,
> I was reading a site on different back country plants in
> California, and one of the plants they mentioned is Aesculus
> californica (California Buckeye). While they did say the seeds are
> poisonous if untreated, here is what they say for preparation:
>
> Boil them until they are the consistency of boiled potatoes, cut them
> into pieces or mash and leach for several days. The nut mush can be
> eaten cold or made into cakes.
>
> Now, does the boiling destroy the toxins? I know that they can be
> leached, but I had never heard of boiling them.
>
> The page is here:
> http://www.backcountryrangers.com/edibles/AESCULUS.html
>
> ____________________________________________________________________
>
> "Raw to the floor like reservoir dogs" - A.V. Helden
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