By now you know not to be fooled by nature’s beauty, right? The Cerbera odollam, for instance, is a perfectly beautiful, lush tree. But, oh no. This unassuming plant isn’t called the “suicide tree” for nothing. It can accurately be called the “murder tree,” too. Whatever you want to call it, just keep your distance.
Lethal Weapon Seed
The Cerbera odollam is a medium-sized hardwood tree, endemic to India and southeast Asia, that can grow up to 32 feet (10 meters) tall. Nothing remarkable there. It’s not like this tree is trying to kill you, but it can. Pretty easily too, thanks to the excessively toxic chemical cerberin in its seeds.
Cerberin is a cardiac glycoside, which is a class of organic compounds that slows your heart rate. These compounds are used in some medications and it’s not hard to see how a little too much of them would be a very, very bad thing. There’s enough cerebin in one Cerbera odollam seed to kill an adult human.
The way it works to stop your heart is similar to that of lethal injection. Ingesting a seed will kill a person in just a few hours, but first, it’ll cause crippling stomach pain, diarrhea, irregular heart rhythm, vomiting, and a headache. It’s not outlandish to think that someone could accidentally eat this deadly seed. They sit inside an edible fruit, after all. Read more
