Rapid human adaptation to plant toxins common or freak of nature?

Last week, I did a crazy biological experiment on myself. Warning!! Don't try this on yourself, most plant species are toxic as food!!

For several days and each day, I ate two or three leaves of three different plants in our garden. On certain days I would eat two three leaves from the same plant and on some days, one leaf from each of the different plant.

I could not identify the plants simply because I don't know much about plants. One thing I'm absolutely certain is that those plants are of the inedible variety and most likely toxic.

At day 1 one of the plants induced a painful burning + stinging sensation in the mouth and throat. The other one tasted bitter and another terrible taste that made it so unpalatable. The third tasted okay. But sufficing to say, I felt a bit dizzy and feverish for the next several minutes like drunk or something and a bit like I want to vomit.

Day 2, Ate leaves from the plant which gave the worst effect not much change in the taste and the burning/stinging sensation in the mouth but other symptoms were much less in effect.

Day 3 Ate leaves from one plant, and from another plant couple of hours apart all symptoms reduced significantly.

Skip to day 7 - I ate few leaves from each plant at different times of the day. This time, all negative effects are no longer manifesting! I made repeated attempts to consume more leaves, before or after brushing/gargling my teeth, no change, I could eat the leaves of these plants without any harmful effects anymore!

Is this a survival adaptation of the human body or is uncommon? I've did some research into this and found wild plant-eating animals have special adaptation to varied plant toxins per species. No information if they can adapt to plant toxins they are not immune from before. Thanks for your time!

See below the plants I tested on myself for identification:

And he was never heard from again

Why in the world would you do something so dangerous? 1 leaf of some plants are enough to kill. Even though you are not feeling the effects anymore you could still be causing damage to your body. Please stop until you learn what plants are dangerous.

I would have sent you some bread or something!!

But seriously... Why? Are you preparing for some sort of survival thing or are you just bored? I can kind of see doing it to see what you could survive on, but geez. Your liver could be shutting down and you wouldn't know it until it was too late. I know you are grown and I am not your mother ( gives you stern look anyway ) but be careful with that stuff!! You could be building up resistance in some areas while other areas (you can't see) are breaking down. Just something to think about.

Many drugs (illegal as well as legal) will cause similar side effect, especially vomiting, until your body has a tolerance for them. Starting In small enough doses anything is probably able to be tolerated. There is a documentary on VICE about a guy who injects himself with multiple snake venoms in a similar experiment. He now claims to not only tolerate the venom, but that it benefits him.

Originally posted by Magister
Why in the world would you do something so dangerous? 1 leaf of some plants are enough to kill. Even though you are not feeling the effects anymore you could still be causing damage to your body. Please stop until you learn what plants are dangerous.

Thanks for everyone's concern! I absolutely don't want anyone else to try it.

To those who asked for survival, yes, this has something to do with it. I was imagining a survival scenario where you need to keep moving only stopping to rest briefly but conserve energy or avoid detection by the enemy, thus, greatly limiting the range you can forage for plant food. It will probably force you to feed on less ideal plant food.

I hate the idea of trapping, hunting animals for food in the wild. I'm an animal lover, partial vegetarian, and I would rather starve to death than eat anything that moves.

Anyway, don't worry about me. I am a person the world may celebrate about if I disappear. No I'm not a criminal, just no one to miss me and I don't contribute at all to the world, just another man taking up oxygen and space, lol!

Originally posted by ahnggk

Anyway, don't worry about me. I am a person the world may celebrate about if I disappear. No I'm not a criminal, just no one to miss me and I don't contribute at all to the world, just another man taking up oxygen and space, lol!

Don't make me come over there... (gives another stern look) We are all just "another man" taking up oxygen and space. None of us greater or less than another. No hand print is so small it doesn't leave a print upon the world.

NOW, after all that I do know my brother used to catch poison oak bad enough to send him to the ER within 24 hours when we were children and I didn't catch it at all. Now that we are grown, he has somehow grown immune to it and now I can catch it. I have never had it severely, but I can get it now, where I could not then. We didn't eat it naturally... but it has to work along the same lines one would think. I also have a daughter that was *mildly allergic to milk when she was a baby and the doctor had me give her minute amounts and gradually increase it over time to build up immunity to it. She is almost 16 now and has no issue. Of course she didn't have a deathly allergy to it either. I am sure that would have made a difference.

I would never say it was ok to eat poisonous plants. But if you are asking if it is possible to overcome reactions/allergies to certain things, then my answer is yes. I assume if one is in such a dire position in which they need to eat toxic plants to begin with, then the reaction probably doesn't matter all that much anyway. Life or death and all that jazz.

I heard about some guys who died doing this. Well they were smoking random plants because they were out of weed, but basically the same thing. It was on 1000 ways to die.


But yeah, it makes a lot of sense. The human immune system has a memory for things it's been exposed to. It's pretty efficient. It's why you never get the same flu twice. It's always a mutated version of the virus. That's why you "need" the vaccine each year.

Also, the immune system responds to more than just bacteria or viruses. It responds to toxins as well, and lots of other stuff.

Originally posted by Kangaruex4Ewe I do know my brother used to catch poison oak bad enough to send him to the ER within 24 hours when we were children and I didn't catch it at all. Now that we are grown, he has somehow grown immune to it and now I can catch it. I have never had it severely, but I can get it now, where I could not then. We didn't eat it naturally... but it has to work along the same lines one would think. I also have a daughter that was *mildly allergic to milk when she was a baby and the doctor had me give her minute amounts and gradually increase it over time to build up immunity to it. She is almost 16 now and has no issue. Of course she didn't have a deathly allergy to it either. I am sure that would have made a difference.

Nice share thanks!

What makes my case different is that I became immune in just seven days naturally.

The highlight seems to be painful mouth and throat irritation from plant toxins which I became completely immune from. Mouthwash or brushing teeth or gargling several times (or not at all) had no effect upon the immunity results.

It's probably "safe" for me to do this since I don't drink any alcoholic drink, don't take drugs, legal or not and I maintain an ascetic and healthy, mostly vegetarian diet aside those toxic plants.

It doesn't seemed to have compromised my immunity from diseases at all and I am nearly immune to common diseases like flu, coughs and colds, even without taking artificial vitamins and minerals (I avoid pharmaceutical products like a plague!)

Still I won't advice anyone to do this due to possible permanent, even life-threatening damage you can inflict upon yourself. I just happened to be a nobody, literally. Unskilled, unwanted, poor, no one would miss, you get the idea so I don't see the risk too big for myself (only) and I don't plan going to the hospital if things get out of hand. I'm doing this to find out alternative ways to survive in the wild. Wish me luck or nine lives, w/e

It's one of my desires to try to live off the grid, in the wild. I'm not young anymore and I got no family of my own should be easy to make the choice

OP, are you aware of this site at all?

Darwin Awards

It's my understanding that to determine if a plant may be good for you, it is best to watch what the birds and animals are eating.
Then rub a bit of the plant on your skin, if there is no harmful reaction, the plant may be safe to eat.

Originally posted by Beartracker16
It's my understanding that to determine if a plant may be good for you, it is best to watch what the birds and animals are eating.
Then rub a bit of the plant on your skin, if there is no harmful reaction, the plant may be safe to eat.

Not a foolproof guide since many herbivores are immune to many plant toxins some that could be deadly to humans.

I have a US army field survival manual which says the safest way is to actually know which plants fruits are safe to eat since edible plant species are alot less than toxic ones thus easier to memorize. The manual had photos of plants safe to eat.

For the sake of these experiments, im not following the manual. Im also simulating a situation where someone would find themselves in a survival situation without any knowledge about survival

I have proceeded more aggressively with the experiment. Consuming three more species of our garden plants at greater amounts.

The given is that I have a hyperactive immune system when it comes to food - I'll get headaches/migraine if chomped on food that my body hates.

The result is still the absence of symptoms or hyperactive immune response. No headaches, no nausea, nothing. My urine isn't yellow either so my liver is tolerating the plant toxins too. It would seem like my body accepts the plant toxins without any harmful effect!

What I found out is that pork, any red meat, and food supplements are far more toxic to me than random garden plants!

Still I won't advice anyone to try eating inedible plants, you run the risk of eating fatally toxic ones. My biological aversion to red meat should tell something that my biological makeup could be different than people who can take red meat without problems.

reply to post by ahnggk


why don't you identify the plants first before you eat them?

seems a much safer option - don't ya think?

Never heard of Mithridates VI of Pontus, the poison king? And what to think of alcohol? No one's aware that that's a poison too?

Heard of Hormesis?

en.wikipedia.org...

It's all very controversial though.