Subject: Re: Wormwood/Artemisia/Thujone

From: [email-masked] (Paul Iannone)
Date: 22 Jul 1995 20:54:32 GMT

In message ID <[email-masked]> on 7/22/95, Maxina A. Gohlke wrote:

:  I'm curious, since I love cabbage and all  it's relatives, (and
: tend to overdo what are it's poisonous properties and how much is too much?

It contains components that convert to cyanide (as do all the cabbages).
Sauerkraut or cabbage juice are the primary risk foods--just don't binge on
them.

--Paul  ||  [email-masked]
--

---

From: [email-masked] (Timothy J Keenan)
Date: 24 Jul 1995 17:15:26 GMT

RAVENDNCR ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Excuse me, but cabbage is a brassica along with broccoli, cauliflower and
: brussels sprouts.  I eat one type of this vegetable family (a cup or more,
: raw or cooked) every day and hey, suffer no ill effects.  In fact, during
: the winter I eat cole slaw every day to keep the body elimination function
: on schedule as fresh fruit is too expensive.

: Harmony prevails.

I think that is the point.  The Brassicacaceae all contain cardiac 
glycosides in varying concentrations.  They are one of the classic 
examples of plant-insect co-evolution.  A few insects have specialized on 
them, and have devised ways of detoxifying or sequestering the poisons, 
but most insects cannot eat them and survive.  It is a question of scale, 
as it is with most plant secondary substances, which, as I mentioned in a 
previous post, are mostly designed (if you will permit me to 
anthropomorphically attribute purpose to evolution) to discourage animals 
>from  eating plants.

Rapeseed oil was, until about ten years ago, inedible (pressed from the 
seeds of Brassica nappa, I believe). An intensive plant 
breeding program at the University of Manitoba succeeded in eliminated 
the gene for the glycoside, and the new wonder food oil "Canola" was 
born.  It is now the most important oil-seed crop in Canada, producing a 
light, high-quality poly-unsaturated oil.

-- Tim Keenan

Cliff Ecology Research Group
Botany Department
University of Guelph
Guelph, Ontario