Hacker News Reader

Comment by BandButcher | Hacker News Reader

I forget where i read it, whether book or anecdotal, i wanna say there are general rules for testing these

I think first you're supposed to rub the leaves on your skin and see if a rash or reaction occurs. If not you proceed to lick or chew the leaf/stem, spit it out, then await a any reactions...

This continues to consuming a small piece, then the fruit, ... Etc.

Again just what i remember hearing before

View on HN

Which, for certain mushrooms, would lead to concluding that you can enjoy a plate of the tasty speciments. After which your DNA will be ripped to pieces over the course of a week, followed shortly by death from general organ failure.

Wow that's insane. Any examples in particular? I knew about some plant seeds that if eaten raw have toxins like canavanine that cause malformed proteins but wouldn't be obvious at first or (afaik) if you still overwhelmingly had enough protein in your diet... but getting your DNA completely shredded like that from a source other than radiation sounds so intense.

Destroying Angel and similar mushroom's have a toxin in it which kills some kind of rna enzyme needed for cell's to function properly. Not sure if it exactly fits the bill of DNA shredding but it'll give you irreversible organ failure in a matter of hours

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destroying_angel

Yeah, I think this kind of procedure is basically for "you're stuck in the wild, and if you don't find something to eat soonish, you're dead anyway".

So it's inherently risky, not sure there _is_ a non-risky way out. But you definitely wouldn't want to do this without need.

This happened on Naked and Afraid where some guy found chicken mushrooms but didn’t boil them before eating them and almost died of liver failure.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com