Hey, everyone welcome back to my channel. My name is Kate and this is Ethnobotanicam.
Today, we're talking about apples.
Now you might be saying to yourself what could possibly be spooky and whatnot with the apples
they're known to ward off illness with the "apple a day keeps the doctor away" thing,
they are associated with knowledge and man's fall from grace and into general
animalian tendencies. They have mystical properties. If you cut an apple crossways
instead of vertically it forms a star with the seeds.
There's all kinds of associations. There's different species--there's
hundreds of different species. They each have their own properties. But, there's
one that is known as the little apple of death.
Manzanila de la muerte.
Manchineel or Manchinel, depending where you are. (US vs Mexican pronounciation), has small fruits, is native to
the Caribbean, Florida, the Bahamas, Mexico, and Central
and northern South America.
The scientific name of this tree is
Hippomane mancinella (HIPPO-man-e Man-chin-eyya)
In its native territory,
it grows in coastal beaches and kind of brackish swamp areas like mangroves and
is known to keep the soil together and prevent erosion so it stabilizes the
land that it's on and provides natural wing breaks it's got kind of a reddish
grayish bark and green-yellow flowers that are pretty small and shiny green leaves.
use but it grows to 15 meters or 49 feet tall.
The only mention that I found of
its prevalence really was that it's endangered in Florida.
Now what could be
so bad about this tree?
All parts are toxic. All parts.
If you properly
dry the wood, it can be used to make very nice furniture but all parts are toxic.
To the extent that if you happen to find yourself standing under this tree when
it rains the sap from the tree can cause intense skin lesions and massive pain
and blisters.
If you should happen to get it in your eyes it can cause blindness
temporary in most cases sometimes permanent.
It damages paint on cars and
a lot of the toxins present haven't been identified yet.
It contains phorbol
But a lot of the components we don't yet know scientifically.
It also causes
intense vomiting and diarrhea if ingested and can lead to death.
Most care
administered if you go into an emergency room after consuming this or having
exposure is just like maintenance care and you have to wait it out however one
of the traditional treatments for the blisters at least is to make an
arrowroot poultice and that's supposed to mitigate the toxicity and irritation
caused by the blisters to help it heal easier and faster.
Now an ethnobotanic
perspective there's been a number of uses for the plant aside from
making furniture from the wood that's a really big one but you have to dry in
the wood until all the sap is gone otherwise, you're gonna poison
everybody that comes in contact with it with severe dermatitis, among
other things so, the sap because of its potency, has been used to tip poison
arrows in a lot of Native communities.
It's been used as timber for centuries
and the gum or the cortex has been used in modern medicine to treat a edema and
the dried fruits can sometimes be used as a diuretic but only I would suggest
under extreme supervision of a medical professional that knows how that plant
reacts to your system and whatever else you're taking.
Would not suggest to
just go harvest it yourself.
According to reports when it's first ingested, it
tastes kind of nicely sweet but then there's severe pain and potential death
So, can you eat the Manchineel? I wouldn't suggest it.
Can you eat t he regular ones? Oh yeah.
yeah till next week see you later guys
it's got Redish sort of greensh