< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > introduction</h1>
There is a euphorbiacea called cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), which was once the staple food of many Indians in Central and South America, with an upright and smooth stem, white milk, alternate leaves, palmate 3-7 deep lobes, lobes lanceolate to long oval lanceolate, resembling castor leaves.
This root shape called cassava is very similar to yam, cylindrical, the flesh is rich in starch, can be ground into tapioca flour, and then made into bread, bread to eat or brew wine to drink, is a staple food for many people, but cassava is delicious, but it is toxic!
cassava
Cassava roots, stems, leaves in the juice contains hydrocyanic acid and sugar combined compound - linoleum bittersin, in addition to linolesinase, if humans directly eat cassava without any treatment, then cassava contains these two substances in the human body polymerization and hydrolysis, it will produce highly toxic - hydrocyanic acid (nerve agent, also harmful to plants), so that the human body poisoning.
Cassava leaves
Of course, not all cassava are poisonous, cassava is mainly divided into two categories, one is sweet cassava, the branches and leaves of this type of cassava are pale green, only trace toxins, the harm to the human body is very small. The other type is bitter cassava, which has a purple-red sap and contains more toxins. For humans, the lethal dose of hydrocyanic acid is 1mg/kg (body weight), that is, if an adult of 50 kg is calculated, if you eat 150 grams to 300 grams of untreated bitter cassava root, it is life-threatening!
After accidentally eating a small amount of cassava, humans will feel chest tightness, palpitations, heart rate acceleration, headache, nausea, vomiting and blurred vision and other symptoms, and after eating more cassava by mistake, the user will be in a deep coma, shallow breathing, paroxysmal convulsions, and even tonic spasms, which may directly suffocate.
Cassava plantation
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Indians used a variety of methods to extract toxins from cassava</h1>
Indians living in the Americas discovered the toxic properties of bitter cassava very early on, and used various methods to extract the toxins in bitter cassava, make venom, and then apply venom to weapons such as spears, bows and arrows, and blow arrows, and quench the weapons to increase lethality.
When extracting cassava toxin, the Indians would first dig fresh cassava leaves and cassava root blocks out of the ground and wash them, and then rub them on a board or stone with uneven surfaces, or put them into a container and pound it. When the cassava is processed into a paste, the poison maker will take out the tapioca paste and put it in a woven bag, and then put it in the middle of the plywood made of two wooden boards, using the principle of leverage to hydraulically squeeze out the juice in the tapioca paste.
Fresh tapioca
Because the endothelial and exodermal toxin content of cassava is much more than that of meat, some Indians will only scrape the outer and inner skin of cassava to juice when extracting cassava toxin, and throw the fleshy texture of cassava aside.
In addition to grinding cassava into a paste, the Indians would wash the cassava, cut it into small pieces, chop the cassava leaves, and then put it in a container and soak it in water for about 6 days. In this way, about 70% of the "toxins" in cassava will penetrate into the clear water, thus turning the water into "poisonous water".
South American Indians armed with blow arrows
However, no matter what method is used to collect the plant sap (venom) rich in cassava toxins, it must be filtered and concentrated.
The specific method is to first take a leaf and roll it into a funnel, put it in the mouth of the container, and then pour the sap into the filter to remove the impurities contained in it, and then put the filtered juice into a clay pot, shell and slowly boil it over a low heat, or put it in the sun.
Clay pots used by South American Indians to boil venom
During this process, the Indians carefully controlled the heat and boiling time (a few hours) to avoid the juice being completely boiled, because although some of the toxicity contained in the cassava juice would become more active after boiling (doubtful), the boiled cassava juice would also produce a large amount of pungent toxic gas (hydrocyanic acid), losing much of the toxicity.
ps: there is also hydrocyanic acid in the apple, bite the apple core, the strange smell that tastes slightly bitter in the mouth is the taste of hydrocyanic acid.
Indians who make blow arrows
When the excess water in the cassava juice is evaporated, the remaining liquid in the container is viscous as if it is syrup, and the water in the upper layer is poured out, so that the cassava toxin is concentrated, has greater toxicity, and can be used for fighting or hunting. When boiling the venom, the Indians also added onion juice to the tapioca juice to make it more viscous, become a paste, and easier to apply to the arrow.
At the beginning of the 19th century, a German natural scientist who went deep into the La Esmeralda region of the Rainforest of South America to explore the local culture was lucky enough to meet an Indian master of poison making, and recorded the process of Indians making venom:
"We see in him (the Indians) a pot of clay boiling plant juices, a large surface area of a shallow vessel used to evaporate water vapor, banana leaves rolled into a cone that uses fibers to filter liquids, thatched huts converted into chemistry laboratories are orderly and highly tidy; Indian 'chemists' have a stiff and rigid expression and a dull and pedantic tone, the same look that European pharmacists have been ridiculed."
Indian sacrificial image
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Indians believed that cassava toxin was superior to muskets in the forest</h1>
Although cassava toxins are far less powerful than those of poison dart frogs, poisonous snakes or poisonous insects, those toxins taken from animals cannot remain active for a long time, while the venom extracted from cassava can be preserved for many years, and the toxicity will not be weakened. At the same time, the number of poisonous dart frogs or poisonous snakes and poisonous insects is too rare to find, while cassava is very easy to find, and the toxins can be easily extracted. Therefore, cassava toxins were used in many places in the lives of Indians, whether it was hunting or fighting against rival tribes.
In the 15th century, most Indians still fought with a variety of weapons made of wood or stone, and only a few Indians had bronze weapons. The backwardness of the weapons makes the Indians have low combat effectiveness, and this practice of quenching poison on the weapons can make up for the shortcomings of low combat effectiveness and greatly increase the lethality of the weapons.
Indians make weapons
Later, even though European colonists brought gunpowder and muskets, some Indians, especially those indian hunters living in the rainforest, still retained the habit of hunting with plant venom, and even many Indian hunters thought that their venom was better than gunpowder and musket, and felt that muskets and gunpowder were far less useful than venom in the rainforest! Because the musket will produce a loud noise and flash when fired, it will scare away the prey or enemy around it, which is not conducive to hunting.
The venom-smeared bow or blow arrow is silent when attacking, even if it does not hit the target, it will not scare away the prey, and the hunters can continue to aim and shoot until they hit the target.
Indian image
In addition, this toxin extracted by the Indians from cassava has a miraculous effect when hunting animals living in trees, such as pheasants, parrots, monkeys and sloths, because this toxin can stop the animal's cardiopulmonary function, suffocate, and make its muscles become weak and weak, unable to grasp the branches of the tree, and easily fall from the canopy, without the hunter risking his life to climb to the high treetops to take the prey that kills the tree.
Indians who successfully hunted monkeys
In addition, the production of venom cassava, poison ivy and other plants grow in the forest, as you go, and the gunpowder used in the musket, the Indians living in the forest will not make, raw materials can not be found in the forest, can only spend money to buy in specific stores, which is very troublesome for those Indians living in areas with backward transportation, so the Indians are proud to show off to the naturalists who visit them:
"[Poison] is something that our father taught his son, passed down from generation to generation, much better than the stuff you have produced, it comes from the sap of plants, it can quietly kill the enemy, and in the end the other party does not know how to die." 」
Until now, some Indians living in the rainforests of South America have retained the habit of hunting animals using blow arrows and poisons.
Indians blow arrows
Many people are curious, after humans eat poisoned prey, why not poisoned and die? Xiaobian is here to explain to you!
Because although the poisoned and dead prey still has a certain amount of toxins in the body, but the prey limbs contain less toxins, after cooking or roasting over a large fire, it will completely lose its toxicity, so eating the poisoned animal meat, humans will not be poisoned.
The Indians did not mind eating poisoned animals, and even thought that the meat of animals that were poisoned was more delicious than the meat of animals killed in other ways! Because of this, when some Indians catch their prey alive, they will choose to kill it with venom and eat it to increase the flavor of the food.