How to Test if a Plant Is Edible
 

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Toxic Yew "berries"

Drastic times call for drastic measures. If you ever find yourself stranded in the wilderness for several days without food, you're going to have to figure out how to feed yourself. If you're well prepared and knowledgeable about the area, you should have no problem finding edible plants, but in the worst case scenario, in which you can't otherwise positively identify a safe plant to eat, follow these guidelines to test for edibility.
Steps [edit]

1. Avoid ever having to use this method without careful planning. Some plants can be deadly, and even if you follow these guidelines perfectly, there is always a chance that a plant will make you seriously ill. Prepare yourself for wilderness outings by learning about the local flora and fauna, and carry a guidebook or taxonomic key to help you identify plants. Even if you are unprepared and cannot find food you know to be safe remember that, depending on your activity level, the human body can go for days without food, and you're better off being hungry than being poisoned.
2. Find a plant that is plentiful. You don't want to go through the rigorous process of testing a plant if there's not a lot of it to eat.
3. Abstain from eating or drinking anything but purified water for 8 hours before the test. If you have to use this method, this step will probably be unavoidable.
4. Separate a plant into parts. Some plants have edible parts and poisonous parts. In order to test if a plant is edible, you actually just want to check if one part (leaf, stem, or root) of one kind of plant is edible. After you have separated the plant into parts, inspect each part you are preparing for parasites. If you encounter worms or small insects inside the plant, discontinue the test with that sample and consider seeking a different sample of the same plant. Evidence of worms, parasites or insects indicates that the plant is rotten, especially if the organism has vacated the plant. Many parts of plants are only edible during certain seasons (for example, acorns collected after the fall are usually rotten). If you find grubs inside the plant, the plant is rotting, but the grubs are edible and contain high amounts of protein (although they taste sour and are gritty).
5. Find out if the plant is contact-poisonous. A contact-poisonous plant is one that causes a reaction merely by touching your skin. Rub the selected plant part on the inside of your elbow or wrist. Crush it so that the sap touches your skin, and hold it there for 15 minutes. If the plant causes a reaction in the next 8 hours, do not continue testing that part of that plant.
6. Prepare a small portion of the plant part. Some plants are poisonous only when raw, so it's a good idea to cook the plant part you are testing if possible. If you can't cook the plant or if you don't anticipate that you will be able to cook it in the future, just test it raw.
7. Hold a small portion of the prepared plant part against a lip for 3 minutes. Do not put the plant in your mouth. If you notice any burning, tingling, or other reaction, discontinue testing.
8. Place another small portion of the plant part on your tongue. Hold the plant on your tongue without chewing for 15 minutes. Discontinue testing if you notice any reaction.
9. Chew the plant and hold it in your mouth for 15 minutes. Chew the plant well, and do not swallow. Discontinue testing if you notice any reaction.
10. Swallow the small portion of plant.
11. Wait 8 hours. Do not eat or drink anything during this period except purified water. If you feel sick, immediately induce vomiting and drink plenty of water. If activated charcoal is available, take that with the water. Discontinue testing if you experience any adverse reaction.
12. Eat 1/4 cup of the same kind of plant part prepared the same way. It is critical that you use exactly the same part of exactly the same kind of plant, and that you prepare it in exactly the same way as you did the initial sample.
13. Wait 8 hours. Abstain from any other food except purified water. Induce vomiting immediately as above if you should feel ill. If no reaction has occurred, you may assume only that particular part of the plant is safe to eat, and only as prepared during the test.
14. Begin a new test if the plant part you have chosen fails any of the tests. If the first plant part you choose appears contact-poisonous, you may immediately test a new plant on your other arm or behind your knee. If the plant causes a reaction before you have swallowed it, wait until the symptoms have disappeared before testing a new plant. If you have an adverse reaction after you've swallowed the plant, wait until symptoms have disappeared and start a new test. Although there may be edible parts of the plant you initially chose, it is preferable to move on to a different plant for subsequent tests.


Alternative Method [edit]

If you are in a situation where you have access to other sources of safe food, you can incorporate this test into your diet more gradually by splitting it up into 3 stages, and using your 8 hours of normal sleep as the 8 hours of pre-test for each stage. Again, this should only be used if you are in a survival situation (e.g. your existing food rations are running low, and you need to start testing another source before your current one is depleted) or if you cannot find documentation for a particular plant and are willing to undergo the risks (poisoning and death) involved.

1. Wake up and do the contact-poisonous part of the test. After 8 hours, eat a normal meal (not of the plant under test).
2. Next morning, complete the test up to swallowing a single piece. After 8 hours, assuming you are still alive and well, eat a normal meal again.
3. Eat the full sample of the plant under test on the 3rd morning. After 8 hours, celebrate life and the adding of a new edible plant to your experience by eating a nice meal.
4. Don't disregard any other steps, or tips, or warnings; this alternative method is only to save your body from the stress of 24 hours of fasting, and enables you to continually test new plants in your area without going hungry for more than 16 hours a day, and only 8 hours on the final day, assuming 1/4 cup of the food can sustain you.


Tips [edit]

* The guidelines in this article, particularly in the Warnings section, may rule out some edible plants, but these warnings are included to help you avoid some of the most common poisonous plants.
* Aggregate berries (such as blackberries and raspberries) are usually safe to eat. (Although in some places where blackberries are considered a pest, they may have been sprayed with pesticides.) One notable exception to this rule is a white berry that grows only in Alaska.
* Cook underground plant parts if at all possible, to kill bacteria and fungus.
* Peel ripe tropical fruits and eat raw. If you must eat an unripe fruit, cook it first. Follow all other test guidelines with these fruits unless you know the plant to be edible.


Warnings [edit]

* In general, avoid thorns or spines. If such a plant has aggregate berries, the berries are safe to eat. Other exceptions include thistles and prickly pear cacti.
* Avoid mushrooms or other fungi. While many fungi are edible, there are many that are deadly, and if you are untrained they can be very difficult to tell apart even after you have tested one.
* Avoid plants with shiny leaves.
* Avoid plants with yellow or white berries.
* Avoid plants with umbrella-shaped flowers.
* Avoid plants with milky sap (Dandelions you should not eat the stem, everything else is edible).
* Do not eat plants that have been penetrated by worms, insects, or parasites.
* Do not assume a plant that is edible when cooked is also edible raw.
* Do not assume that a plant is safe if you see animals eating it.
* Once you have determined a plant is edible, take care to make sure that subsequent plants you harvest are the same plant. Many plants are similar in appearance.
* Testing plants can be dangerous. These steps should only be attempted in a dire emergency.

Re: How to Test if a Plant Is Edible
 

Boiling food (if you are able) can make a big difference too, as it can break down certain toxins (however not all).

Good examples are potatoes, which should always be cut up and boiled, and beans which have natural toxins onboard; which soaking or boiling helps remove.

Note that boiling green potatos doesn't necessarily help! Solanine only breaks down at 243C which you are unlikely to achieve while cooking. So don't eat 'em, or you run the risk of being sick, or even dying. If you must eat them, very small quantities seems like a good idea, and I'd remove the skin. By boiling, though, hopefully you can leach some of this toxin out into the water instead, and reduce the toxicity of the plant to edible levels, I don't have any data on that though.

Solanine and Chaconine are natural pesticides that protect the spud from insect attack.

Green potatoes for example have high solanine (or chaconine) content as potatoes are members of the Nightshade family. Other similar plants are tomatoes, capsicum, eggplant.

"Solanine is a glycoalkaloid poison found in species of the nightshade family. It can occur naturally in any part of the plant, including the leaves, fruit, and tubers. It is very toxic even in small quantities. Solanine has both fungicidal and pesticidal properties, and it is one of the plant's natural defenses."

"Solanine poisoning
Symptoms

Solanine poisoning is primarily displayed by gastrointestinal and neurological disorders. Symptoms include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach cramps, burning of the throat, heart arrhythmia, headache and dizziness. Hallucinations, loss of sensation, paralysis, fever, jaundice, dilated pupils and hypothermia have been reported in more severe cases.
In large quantities, solanine poisoning can cause death. One study suggests that doses of 2 to 5 mg per kilogram of body weight can cause toxic symptoms, and doses of 3 to 6 mg per kilogram of body weight can be fatal.
Symptoms usually occur 8 to 12 hours after ingestion, but may occur as rapidly as 30 minutes after eating high-solanine foods."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanine


Boiling something is very simple to do, the only downside is that you will lose some nutrient value and flavour. If you can bring something to the boil, hold it there just long enough at a high temp, then drop it, you will help your odds. Cut the plant up, and only boil the edible bit, do not boil the whole thing as you may cross-contaminate.

This also has the effect of killing a lot of pests and parasites, so there is another bonus.

Best thing to have is a book that outlines what is edible and what isn't. Most survival manuals only have short sections on this and tend to gloss over it.

I hope to put together a bit of a database or spreadsheet of herbs and plants, outlining what is easily edible and what isn't. Also, if a plant requires you to jump through hoops to eat it, or is risky, then it may not be worth wasting the calories on.

Re: How to Test if a Plant Is Edible
 

There's a much easier way. Have your slave do the eating for you. If he gets sick :puke: or dies :goodnight then scratch that plant off your list. :driver:

...and you thought slaves were a bad idea??:D

Re: How to Test if a Plant Is Edible
 

Nah.

I'll just tell you that I eat them all the time, so here you go, have one.

If you survive, I know they're probably ok, and I'd just made a new friend who would appreciate the feed. :)

Re: How to Test if a Plant Is Edible
 

I think everyone should have a short list of the edible wild plants in their local area.
I know most survivalists like to think about gardening as a survival tactic,and I'm a gardener too, but a better survival tactic is to gather and use what Mother Nature provides unassisted.

Since the flora differs by region there is no one perfect list.

Experimenting with unknown plants is a risky thing and I would not recommend it as a survival tactic except in absolute desperation.

Find out about the local edible wild plants and you'll have very valuable info.

For instance, acorns, properly prepared, are a very nutritious food.
Any oak trees where you live?

Re: How to Test if a Plant Is Edible
 

The thing is, if it comes down to no food, we're probably not going to be travelling in airplanes to different ecosystems either. I think most people have some idea what plants in their area are edible (dandelions, that thing that looks like spinach, etc.) If not, they can make a list without testing.

Actually, if it appears in the bylaws as a noxious weed that you're not allowed to grow and should kill or face a fine, it's probably edible!

Re: How to Test if a Plant Is Edible
 

Dandelions are an iffy choice since they typically are sprayed with same chemicals a lawn is sprayed with. Dandelions cultivated as greens or gathered from the true wilds would be fine, but lawn dandelions, not so good. I just wouldn't eat what I find in the typical chemically-raised lawn. Systemic pesticides make my tummy upset.
Btw, dandelions make humans piss like race horses. :D