Don't Eat The Poison, Honey

[palani]

http://boingboing.net/2011/12/15/dont-eat-the-poison-honey.html

Don't eat the poison honey


By Maggie Koerth-Baker at 11:18 am Thursday, Dec 15
One interesting fact and one bit of useful advice, courtesy the Neuroskeptic blog:
• When bees use nectar from wild Rhododendrons the honey they produce is poisonous. Not poisonous as in, "dude, you have to try this poison honey it made me see god," but poisonous as in "was once left out as a deadly trap for invading armies."
• Although, like Viagra, rhododendron honey does have cardiovascular effects, you should not ingest it as a "marital aid." If you do, you will risk both death, and ending up the subject of a funny report in a medical journal.

Who knew?

[TheNocturnalEgyptian]

Toxicology

Some species of rhododendron are poisonous to grazing animals because of a toxin called grayanotoxin in their pollen and nectar. People have been known to become ill from eating honey made by bees feeding on rhododendron and azalea flowers. Xenophon described the odd behavior of Greek soldiers after having consumed honey in a village surrounded by Rhododendron ponticum during the march of the Ten Thousand in 401 BC. Pompey's soldiers reportedly suffered lethal casualties following the consumption of honey made from Rhododendron deliberately left behind by Pontic forces in 67 BC during the Third Mithridatic War. Later, it was recognized that honey resulting from these plants has a slightly hallucinogenic and laxative effect.[21] The suspect rhododendrons are Rhododendron ponticum and Rhododendron luteum (formerly Azalea pontica), both found in northern Asia Minor. Eleven similar cases have been documented in Istanbul, Turkey during the 1980s.[22] Rhododendron is extremely toxic to horses, with some animals dying within a few hours of ingesting the plant, although most horses tend to avoid it if they have access to good forage. The effects of Rhododendron ponticum was mentioned in the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes as a proposed way to arrange a fake execution.[23]