Idiot scientists

Rhysis

Rhysis

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I was bored and looking up some info on a plant I've had since 8th grade. It's a mother-in-laws tongue. (pretty much the most resiliant plant you will ever find) I found a question on some random message board asking if the plant was poisonous because he wanted to give it to his sister who was about to have a baby.

Anyway...

There was posted on this board, the results of a study done by some scientists who tested this plant on a couple different types of lab animals. They were shocked to discover that, after force-feeding the animals a large dose of this plant (10% of the animal's body weight) they died, despite the low-toxic levels found in the plant.

Now, call me crazy, but 10% of my body weight is 25 lbs. Hell even 10% of LORA'S body weight is 12 lbs. If you fed ME 12 lbs of food, much less 25, I'd probably end up dead, too. That's a LOT of frickin food.
 
No shit! I usually feel like I'm gonna burst when we go to a buffet, imagine being forced feed all that food...No wonder the poor things died...The other question is..WHY? Why would you fee the animal that much of anything? If it is poisionious, then even a small does would show that...Geesh
 
Couldn't say. They also did seperate tests, i.e. injections, inhalation, etc. Not sure if they produced the same results or not.
 
It all depends upon the level of poisonus capacity of the plant. For instance roses are poisonus if a high enough quantity is eaten. Specifically anything in high enough doses is fatal this includes water, air, rocks fire, base radiation, and chipmunks. The reason people test things is to see to what level is fatal.
 
I think it also depends on the type of animal tested. I may be mistaken, but I believe animals such as cows eat at least 10% of their body weight on a regular basis, and then other animals who hibernate tend to eat even more than that when they are preparing for winter. So, I don't think it's that unusual. In addition, depending on the animals body weight, the effects of the plant just might not show up at all. You have to look at it like drinking alcohol. Tolerance and body weight play a large part in how drunk you get. For some people, just one drink would do it (yeah, that's me) and for others it might take a case of beer before they're good and toasted. They were probably just taking that into account because animals, like humans, tend to be individuals.
 
I suppose that's possible. Like I said I didn't really do a TON of research on the results they found. I just know that, typically, lab animals are tested on because their biology is similar to ours. Don't know if this was the case for ALL the animals they tested. I know they did use mice, but not sure about anything else.
 
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