Pfhorrest wrote:Soooo many New World crops are in the "deadly nightshade" family it's ridiculous. Tomatoes, all chilis, tobacco, probably potatoes and sweet potatoes too, it wouldn't surprise me at all if cocoa were in there too...
Potatoes are nightshades, sweet potatoes (and yams) are not. Cocoa is not. Eggplants are, though.
The "poisonous" chemicals in a potato tuber are mostly in the skin (the rest of the plant is worse, but we don't eat potato leaves or potato berries.) The green-colored parts of younger potato tubers have a higher concentration of "nightshade poison" in them, also. If you're worried, don't eat the green bits or the skin. And break off any green edges on a potato chip (UK: crisp) or french fry (UK: chip).
All the nightshades produce poisons; alkaloids to serve as built-in pesticides. The alkaloids in potatoes are solanine and chaconine, not the same as the truly-deadly nightshades like belladonna (atropine, scopolamine, etc)...
The poisonous alkaloid chemical that tobacco produces? Nicotine. Nicotine poisoning is far from the most dangerous thing about
using tobacco, but tobacco farmers have to take precautions against it, as you can absorb nicotine through the skin just by handling the plants. And belladonna's scopolamine is used in anti-motion-sickness medications and other drugs. So "the dose makes the poison", as always.