How many pokeweed berries would a person have to eat to die?

Question

Is it just one? Or it it several dozen?

Answer 1

You've probably figured out by now that you're not getting any answers to this question because the answer just may not be known. This kind of (very) specific information is generally researched on plants that have great economic importance. I'm probably doing the same kind of research that you yourself would be doing here.

I forgot - where do you live? There are several species of pokeweed but I'm assuming you mean Phytolacca americana. Be sure to give the scientific name of an organisim whenever possible.

Honestly, looking at the initial reports, I would probably not eat this plant at all. I've found information that children have died from consuming the berries, but that may have been a large dose:

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/content/ETO_5_3X_Pokeweed.asp?sitearea=ETO

I know people do eat the young plant parts (the parts apparently need to be blanched - but this only reduces the toxicity) but it does not mean the process is adviseable.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/poison/Phytoam.htm

If I were to guess (and this is a GUESS), I would say you could probably eat about 20 of the berries without much more than a stomach ache (maybe 3 times as much if they are thoroughlly blanched. I make this guess based on the assumption that a child ate about one raceme and died; other information suggests that blanching reduces toxicity about 1/3.

OK, MY WARNING!!! The last thing I want to say here is that it is OK to eat these things and then to have you go out and try them. I'll let you know, I experiement with a lot of questionable plants for food sources, and I do not think I would ever try these.

I will look for more information but I don't expect to find much. Please remember that some kinds of toxins are cumulative and add up after years of consuming something that seems to have no negative effects.

Answer 2

mmm! poke vegetables i imagine i'd have popped some in my mouth at one time or yet another even as i became a newborn.. yet they are meant to be poisonous.. like various different individual stated.. one likely will make you in common words ill real undesirable.. Iknow after I accidently popped one into my eye and it burned.. I went to the hospital and had my eye washed out.. i couldnt see properly for an afternoon.. i assumed i became gonna bypass blind.. haha!.. yet all went properly..