Health - What ethnobotanicals are potentially lethal?

[Orchid_Suspiria]

Other than the obvious datura and other nightshades.What ethnos have the potential for overdose or harm to the human body?Are almost all ethnos relatively safe?

[Paracelsus]

The term ethnobotanical includes plants with traditional use in certain ethnic groups. On sites such as this one, the term applies to all psychoactive plants.

The easiest I can think of it Papaver somniferum. Also, LSA seeds can cause vasoconstriction which theoretically could become serious (gangrene and the likes) when one overdoses, which is especially possible with extracts.

Many ethnos have not been studied in detail, so those are not even relatively safe. Only the ones that have a history of traditional use and some medical data surrounding their use could be judged as relatively safe or relatively dangerous.

[HighParadise]

Originally Posted by Paracelsus

The easiest I can think of it Papaver somniferum. Also, LSA seeds can cause vasoconstriction which theoretically could become serious (gangrene and the likes) when one overdoses, which is especially possible with extracts.

What would a theoretical dose for gangrene be? Because I've taken 1300 morning glory seeds before and I was planning on taking more (130lbs).

[genaro]

I suggest you don't use more than 1000 morning glory seeds (heavenly blue), which is 30g of seeds.
Taking too much will cause some vasoconstriction (blue lips, purple fingers, bad cramps in the legs) but the main risk from taking excessive amounts of these seeds is respiratory depression (which can be severe and cause death by suffocation within a short period of time).
One thing for sure, ergine and isoergine are powerful depressant, so when using such high doses of seeds, you MUST NOT mix these with alcohol, depressants, downers or IMAOs as this would very very dangerous (intense respiratory depression)

[podge]

Amanita Muscaria (aka Fly Agaric's) contains ibotenic acid which can be deadly to humans.

Also bufotenin can be deadly. It can be found on the Bufo Alvarius toad and on some other DMT sources like plants such as Anadenanthera peregrina, some species of the Fly Agaric also contain bufotenin.

[Paracelsus]

some species of the Fly Agaric also contain bufotenin.

The fly agaric is a species (A. muscaria). Do you mean other species in the Amanita genus? There are many deadly Amanita mushrooms.

[podge]

Originally Posted by Paracelsus

The fly agaric is a species (A. muscaria). Do you mean other species in the Amanita genus?

Well spotted, exactly what swim meant.

[Orchid_Suspiria]

I was going to include amanita but I would think most deaths involving that would be due to misidentification when people try to use wild mushrooms.It is pretty clear only an expert should go into the wild to look for amanita muscaria.Papaver somniferum would have also been included but seeing more people use semi synthetic or synthetic opiates in the western world as far as I know I didn't include that either.

[Thirdedge]

The Potato family ( Nightshade family ) - Solanaceae - comprises about 2500 species, many of which are ethnobotanicals. This whole family should be considered deadly until proven otherwise. Many contain Tropanes similar to Datura.

Any plant that is an MAO-inhibitor (Syrian rue, B. Caapi) may be deadly if combined with certain foods or drugs.

Tobacco is harmful and addictive.

[genaro]

most known drugs can be fatal if taken in excessive dose

but it's true that some are more likely to overdose from than others, meaning that for some drugs the active dose is really close from the toxic dose.
This is especially true for solanaceae plants (brugmansia, datura, belladona, mandrake, henbane, nightshades...)

That's why before experimenting with a plant one should make lots of researches about its pharmacology (effects, side effects,a ctive principles..)
A plant that is known to modify (stimulate or depress) vital body functions (muscle contraction, rythm of breath, heart rate, blood pressure) is more likely to cause serious problems if an excessive dose is taken.
For instance yohimbe is know to significantly increase heart rate and blood pressure, which means that if you take too much you will probably have some kind of cardiovascular failure.

also be very careful with obscure ethnobotanicals which have nearly no report of use as you really don't know what to expect from these, and as an ignorant, there's a definite risk of taking to much. Always start very low and increase dosage very progressively.

ps: one last thing, better not try to get high from plants which psychoactive effect is not the primary effect, especially poisonous plants which secondary poisoning symptoms include some psychoactive effect, while main primary effect is just acute poisoning (sophora for instance)

[radiometer]

Tabernanthe iboga carries a realistic risk of fatality at not unknown doses, AFAIK.

What genaro says is true. One must assess the risk of a drug in terms of its therapeutic index, which is the ratio of a drugs LD50 (which must be estimated sometimes for practical purposes) to its effective dose.