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Parsnips psychoactive?

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downwardsfromzero

downwardsfromzero

Boundary condition
While looking through "Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management", on p.579 I noticed the following account:
The Parsnip. - This vegetable is found wild in meadows all over Europe and, in England, is met with very frequently on dry banks in a chalky soil. In its wild state, the root is white, mucilaginous, aromatic, and sweet, with some degree of acrimony: when old it has been known to cause some degree of vertigo. Willis relates that a whole family fell into delirium after having eaten of its roots, and cattle never touch it in its wild state. [...]
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This post may hint at the reason:
[...]

Myristicin:
Pastinaca sativa -- Parsnip; 183,000 - 662,000 ppm in Root Essential Oil;
Petroselinum crispum -- Parsley; 14,785 - 19,800 ppm in Seed;
[...]
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That's a lot of myristicin in there...

Meanwhile , I've attached a picture of a parsnip being used as the bowl of a bong.
 

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I wouldn't be surprised if there were similar reports of wild carrots. They were spindly unappealing roots (that weren't orange) used in medicine originally IIRC.
 
Myristicin and other phenylpropenes are fairly common throughout the Apiaceae, including carrots. There are reports of carrot foliage being smoked for some kind of psychoactive effect.

Carrots can also serve as impromptu pipe bowls quite ably. 😁
 
Parsnips and carrots!?! I'm keeping an eye on this thread for sure.
Summer is comming and the growing season has started.
 
downwardsfromzero said:
Tbh, I wouldn't get your hopes up. It was mostly an excuse to post the pic of the parsnip bong :oops:
Click to expand...

Hahaha!

In seriousness you do seem to be onto something. "the common parsnip (Pastinaca sativa) becomes powerfully hallucinogenic when allowed to grow into its SECOND SEASON. According to 'THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PURE MATERIA MEDICA'"

Its essential oil is said to be 88% myristicin and terpinolene

I'm only taking this off Google.

Thanks for the heads up man!
 
Ha ha ha! Yes I like any reason for posting vegetable bongs! :)
Regarding other plats in the family. Parsley har a reputation of beeing posinous in the second year. At the same time it says in wikipedia that the seeds are beein used in food. Seems to contain myrcene and myristicin among other things.
The plant world. So much to learn and try.
 
A considerable proportion of the Apiaceae (Umbelliferae) produces interesting phenylpropenes. There's another thing for me to do, an updated compilation of phenylpropene sources in plants.

They also produce a load of other things. Some of them are quite noted for their production of phototoxic furocoumarins, perhaps this has something to do with the parsley toxicity thing. Parsnips and lovage also produce photosensitising substances like this. When harvesting parsnips it's best to wear gloves for this reason.

Some of these furocoumarins look like they could, with a little ingenuity, be converted into interesting phenylethylamines/benzofuranylethylamines. We can't really discuss that here, though.

I've grown wild carrots in my garden, but mostly for the flowers and foliage - they're lovely plants. Wild parsnips are very nice plants too. The seeds are considered edible as a condiment. One day I'd like to get around to growing some myself. Meanwhile, I'll be putting in a few rows of the cultivated sort. Parsnip wine is said to be very good as well.
 
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