RE: Rhubarb? Toxic? (fwd)

["Donald W. Lewis" <don@NATSO.com>]

Poster: "Donald W. Lewis" <don@NATSO.com>

How toxic is rhubarb?

     From an MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) for Oxalic acid, LD50
(LD50 is the Median Lethal Dose,
     which is the dose of a drug or chemical predicted to produce a
lethal effect in 50 percent of the subjects
     to whom the dose is given) in rats is 375 mg/kg. So for a person
about 145 pounds (65.7 kg) that's
     about 25 grams of pure oxalic acid required to cause death. Rhubarb
leaves are probably around 0.5%
     oxalic acid, so that you would need to eat quite a large serving of
leaves, like 5 kg (11 lbs), to get that 24
     grams of oxalic acid. Note that it will only require a fraction of
that to cause sickness.


Donald MacGregor

		-----Original Message-----
		From:	SCAEtain@aol.com [mailto:SCAEtain@aol.com]
		Sent:	Thursday, April 01, 1999 3:42 PM
		To:	atlantia@atlantia.sca.org
		Subject:	Re: Rhubarb?  Toxic? (fwd)


		Poster: SCAEtain@aol.com

		Greetings again,

		<<> Gosh, you think they could have simply put up a
sign, "Please don't eat
		> our displays." ;-)

		For that matter, you'd think that people would know
enough not to
		eat random herbs.>>

		Actually, Historic St. Mary's City is right next to St.
Mary's College of Md.
		And The rhubarb was planted in raised beds full of lots
of other fresh
		veggies. 
		So you take a college kid, with or without the addition
of alcohol. Then you
		add the fact that they've been eating at the cafeteria
all semester, yuk.
		Next you stick them near the gardens, which also contain
lettuces, carrots,
		and fresh herbs, fruit trees, and grape vines...
		Plus, it's dark 'cause it's the middle of the night when
they're out running
		around (hey, the college is in the middle of nowhere,
what else are they gonna
		do?)

		It all adds up to a bad situation if the kids eat the
baby rhubarb leaves. And
		signs don't help because they're not even supposed to be
in there after the
		museum closes. Besides, signs aren't period *grin* 
		So that's why they don't plant rhubarb anymore.

		Etain
		(former resident of St. Mary's college (Dun Carraig) and
former employee of
		the historic St. Mary's City living history museum
(where we don't eat rhubarb
		leaves!))
	
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