Liquorice
So you know that Liquorice is toxic? Right? Yup you got that
right.Toxic…. Enough of it and you could end up in hospital or even die. When
consumed in large quantities, it can cause your potassium levels to fall to the
point where some people experience arrhythmia, a rise in blood pressure,
swelling and even congestive heart failure.
How much is too much? According to the FDA, a diet including
2 ounces of black licorice a day for two weeks might merit a trip to the
hospital to have an irregular heart beat checked out.
That’s why we named this stunningly beautiful amphibian
version of the German flag “Liquorice”
It was found at the Mozal complex by Vlad and has a similar ability to
effect your early demise if you mess with it.
Liquorice (the frog) has a cardiotoxin on his skin that in
humans, after prolonged skin contact, or assimilation of the toxin via cuts or
scratches on the hands, can cause extremely painful swelling and other symptoms
such as nausea, headache, respiratory distress and an increased pulse rate. It
could even kill you.
But do not say you were not warned, Liquorice is a member
the group of little critters that subscribe to the time honored tradition of
advertising their toxicity with bright warning colors, a phenomenon known as
Aposematism.
You have been warned ….Twice.
Wauw, Liquorice toxic? The Dutch eat an average of 2 kg per year of it... they are almost all addicted to it and call it drop.
ReplyDeleteExcept for getting a temporary elevated blood pressure I have not heard of lethal cases of drop consumption. I guess it all has to do with quantity... I remember feeling very sick after eating one kilo in an afternoon and vomiting black...
For all chemicals there is a dose response curve, or a range of doses that result in a graded effect between the extremes of no effect and 100% response (toxic effect). All chemical substances will exhibit a toxic effect given a large enough dose. If the dose is low enough even a highly toxic substance will cease to cause a harmful effect. The toxic potency of a chemical is thus ultimately defined by the dose (the amount) of the chemical that will produce a specific response in a specific biological system.
ReplyDelete"All substances are poisons; there is none which is not a poison. The right dose differentiates a poison…." Paracelsus (1493-1541)