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Originally Posted by mrsD
Tomatoes you know were thought to be poisonous at one time historically.
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Why did tomatoes have such a bad reputation early in our history? The answer lies first in appearances and then in names. For starters, the close resemblance of tomatoes to deadly nightshade [a.k.a. Belladonna] (so close that the two were occasionally mistaken for each other) did not encourage equanimity.
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Many members of this [nightshade] family are indeed poisonous or hallucinogenic or both. That the family also contains many edible members (potatoes, chili peppers, and eggplants among them) did not help the tomato’s reputation, because of these only the eggplant was familiar to Europeans in the 16th century. The others, like the tomato, came from the New World and, like it, were suspect.
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Just to seal the tomato’s fate, all parts of the plant, with the exception of its fruit, actually are poisonous.
http://www.planetnatural.com/tomato-...-guru/history/
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The above article led me—eventually—to this one:
Tainted tomato led to arthritis, which in turn led me to wonder if the tomato's "poisonous" rep couldn't possibly have been fueled by something similar in those olden times—someone becoming (violently) ill and/or dying after consuming contaminated tomatoes (reminescent of that whole ergotism/witch-hunt business which, incidentally, occurred during the same era/region).
A.k.a. "Love Apples", "Golden Apples", "Wolf Peaches", "Moor Apples".... tomatos have a fascinating (his/her)story....
Doc