It's time to eat strawberries again, but strawberries are not cheap on the market.
In the mountains in the countryside, there are also many "wild strawberries" ripe, such as raspberries, snakeberries are very common. Among them, for friends who grew up in rural areas, they should have known since childhood that raspberries can be eaten, while snakeberries cannot be eaten.
If you ask the reason carefully, you will generally answer that adults have said this since childhood, and also tell us that snakeberries are the fruit eaten by poisonous snakes, and it is poisonous, so it cannot be eaten.
Is the snakeberry really the fruit eaten by snakes? Is it poisonous, and can it be eaten? Let's take a look with you today, and it is estimated that the results will surprise many people.
In fact, when I was a child, I really ate snakeberries. Of course, this is all what we children secretly eat behind our parents' backs. To be honest, it's really not delicious, and it's far worse than raspberries.
Wild fruits such as raspberries, eating one will then want to eat the second, the sweet and sour taste is so delicious that you can't stop, and for snakeberries, you often eat one and don't want to eat anymore.
When I ate it at that time, I was also a little scared, and I was really afraid that it was poisonous. But it's so good-looking, and the colors are very attractive. It is estimated that for children, they can't help but pick and eat such bright wild fruits when they see them.
Later, when I grew up, I paid special attention to the wild fruit of snakeberry, and also consulted a lot of information, even papers written by some scholars, and finally found that snakeberry is poisonous, but it is a microtoxicity, that is, its toxicity is not large.
What is Snakeberry?
Snakeberry is a highly photographed plant in rural areas and is considered a dangerous plant by many. This is a perennial herb belonging to the genus Snakeberry in the family Rosaceae.
It is also widely distributed in the mainland, generally growing in some dark, humid environments, such as the corner of the wall of the rural yard, near the ditch, etc., and it has a characteristic, that is, love to grow in pieces, often a long is a large piece.
As a vine plant, its leaves are emerald green and will bloom small yellow flowers, which is very beautiful. When the flowers are gone, they will bear strawberry-like fruits, and the color is quite attractive.
If it is not said by adults that it is poisonous and is the fruit that poisonous snakes love to eat, it is estimated that everyone will be unable to help but pick it and taste it when they see it in the wild.
Are snakeberries really poisonous?
Regarding the snakeberry plant, many people avoid it, because there are many rumors that are unfavorable to it in the people, such as its fruit is poisonous, it is a wild fruit that poisonous snakes love to eat.
But in fact, these have no basis, and the editor analyzes the reason why snakeberries are so unpopular, there are the following reasons. The first is that its colors are too bright. This is like the beautiful and attractive mushrooms in the forest, but most of them are poisonous, and the fruit of snakeberries is also bright.
Second, its growth environment is often infested with snakes. In fact, snakes do not like to eat snakeberries, nor will they eat their fruits. It's just that this plant loves to grow in dark and damp places, and snakes also like to move in such an environment, so it gives the illusion that snakes come to find its fruit.
Third, snakeberries are poisonous, but not very toxic. There are also records of snakeberries in many ancient medical texts, which basically say that snakeberries are poisonous. Even Li Shizhen recorded in the "Compendium of Materia Medica" that snakeberries are "sweet, cold, bitter and poisonous." But it's not as toxic as folklore.
After modern scientists' analysis of snakeberry ingredients, it has been found that it is indeed toxic. But the toxicity of snakeberries is very small, if you try it early, eating a little snakeberry is not a big problem.
And as I said earlier, the wild fruit of snakeberry is not delicious, it has a very light taste, it tastes neither sour, nor sweet, and even a little unpalatable. It is estimated that many people do not want to eat after eating a few, so the probability of poisoning by eating snakeberries is very low.
Snakeberries are slightly toxic, but also highly valuable!
It is worth mentioning that the snakeberry, which scares many people, is actually a treasure plant that has high medicinal value. Li Shizhen recorded in the "Compendium of Materia Medica" that snakeberry has the effect of clearing heat and detoxification, cooling blood and stopping bleeding, dissipating stasis and reducing swelling, and can be used to treat fever convulsions, boils and swelling pain, sore throat and snake and insect bites.
In the past, the folk used it to deal with poisonous snakebites, and the method was simple, it was mashed and applied to the snakebite, and it was also effective for burns, and the method was the same, that is, it could be mashed and applied externally.
In addition, snakeberry this plant is also effective for diarrhea, remember that when I was a child, I often ate my stomach because of gluttony, generally adults will go to the front of the house to pick some snakeberries, and then wash and boil water to drink, so that drinking a few times will no longer have diarrhea, it can be said that snakeberry is also a natural additive-free antidiarrheal drug.
In addition, snakeberry is also a plant with high ornamental value, it can be used for flower viewing in spring, fruit viewing in summer, and planted in the yard can also protect the soil and avoid soil erosion. So if you have snakeberries in your yard, don't eradicate them!