TIME FOR ZOMBIES! Thank you, Vice!

For your Saturday and Sunday viewing pleasure, here's a look at a topic that I've brought up numerous times on this blog: Zombies. I love Vice, so if something comes up that fits with this blog of natural goodness, expect a friendly cross-post.

The quest that our favorite druggie is on concerns the "zombie" potion mentioned in Wade Davis's The Serpent and the Rainbow. I have brought it up a few times when detailing tetraodontiform fish (such as fuuuuguuuu) and anything in the nightshade family.

As the documentary explains, our very notion of a zombie comes from Haiti. In The Serpent and the Rainbow, a Haitian shaman, or bokor, created an "undead" servant using a potent cocktail of macabre ingredients. Among those ingredients were datura (which contains scopolamine, the drug known for brainwashing people) and pufferfish poison (which has "risen the dead" several times). These two combined would theoretically make a "zombie" - a "risen corpse" that could be ordered to do a shaman's bidding.

I've made mention of everything in the documentary before. There have been entries on fugu and datura - look them up. Here's a little bit of extra FYI: TTX can also be found in triggerfish, and datura is related to nightshade, "devil's breath," and tomatoes. You will never think of tomatoes the same way again. You're welcome.

Spoiler alert: At the end of this documentary, we learn that the "weapon" Hamilton was given was made of inert substances. When it was taken to a lab for analysis, the powder did not contain any sort of poison except maybe some stuff found in cosmetics. Either this is one hell of a placebo (which I would not put past Haiti) or Vice just got duped. My money is on the latter.

While there is something to be said for a placebo effect, I think it's pretty obvious that Hamilton got trolled. No smart sorcerer/poison maker would allow his claim to fame to be taken back to the U.S. for analysis so easily. Could it still be a con job, even in its native Haiti? Sure. The way Crescent was behaving makes me think that he duped our intrepid reporter on purpose, however. The zombie poison is still out there.

Datura Revisited - Scopolamine and Brugmansia.

A while back, this blog covered a genus of plants called Datura. All Datura species are highly poisonous in every single part. It's related to nightshade and...tomatoes. Yeah, be very afraid of tomatoes.

Datura was also mentioned in a book called The Serpent and the Rainbow. The Serpent and the Rainbow centered around the creation of zombies through drug use. Datura was one of those substances. Recent investigation suggests that Datura may be all that is needed to create a zombie mind slave.
Datura is closely related to the trees mentioned above. The video is slightly incorrect in that the plant in question is in Brugmansia, not Datura. The plant is so feared in Columbia that children are discouraged from sleeping under it. Apparently the plant can also be found in New Zealand, where people just plain don't touch it because of the horror stories. Yeeep.

Scopolamine, the active chemical in Brugmansia, is notorious amongst conspiracy theorists. The Czech police, and supposedly the U.S. government as well, have used it as a truth serum of sorts. However, this may not have been the best idea; the victim, while suggestible, is still tripping. In theory, they could answer "how many fingers am I holding up?" wrong.  Greeeat truth serum, guys.

Now, as per Wikipedia, scopolamine can be used for things besides carrying out crimes using another person's body. It is mostly used for treating things like motion sickness and seasickness. Some people do use it for tripping, but by no means is it a regular thing. Most people stick with the dozens of other drugs available in those parts.

As I noticed, though, the data in the video is slightly off. The interviews seem legit, so it's probably not the drug dealers' fault that they got the genera mixed up. A drug that inhibits free will like that sounds unbelievable, but since when has anything been impossible in this world? Who knows? Truth might be stranger than fiction this time around.

Little Shop of Horrors: Mandrakes.

From www.columbia.edu.

If you are familiar with the fantasy genre, the mandrake (or mandragora) is one of the most notorious plants you will ever come across. The mandrake, a plant with a humanoid root, screams very loudly whenever it is pulled from the ground, enough so that all who hear the scream die instantly. It is, however, magically potent, so people have devised all sorts of crazy tricks to get one. This, for example:

"A furrow must be dug around the root until its lower part is exposed, then a dog is tied to it, after which the person tying the dog must get away. The dog then endeavours to follow him, and so easily pulls up the root, but dies suddenly instead of his master. After this the root can be handled without fear."

Yep. People would kill puppies to get a mandrake. Mandrakes do exist, but they are not worth killing anything over. 

The plant is actually rather pretty.

Real mandrakes are plants of the genus Mandragora. It is in the nightshade family, meaning that it is related to (obviously) nightshade, tomatoes, eggplants, tittyfruit, datura, and at least one other weird plant on this blog. The type species is Mandragora officinarum, which has been around in Europe (and Israel?) since time began. All parts of the mandrake plant are toxic and should be handled with care.

No, plants have not become so freaky that they have evolved the capacity to scream. Mandrake roots, however, can sometimes look uncannily like people. The way the roots split sometimes create a 'stick figure.' They are not alone in this regard; a few other plants, namely ginger and ginseng, also tend to look like people. Pythagoras, the creator of the Pythagorean Theorem, was such a staunch vegetarian that he refused to eat beans because they resembled human fetuses. Imagine how he would react to a mandrake!

IT'S PEOPLE!

The 'magic' effects of mandrake probably originate from the chemical cocktail found in every part of the plant. Along with several other compounds such as scolopomine and atropine (both trippy on their own), mandrakes have their own substance called mandragorin. Mandragorin produces a hallucinogenic, dreamlike state of mind; in spiritual terms, this is a shortcut to astral plane. They have also been used as medicine for infertility (magic man-plant, remember?) and as a painkiller by many an ancient physician. The jury is still out on whether or not mandrakes have the same zombie-making potential as datura.

Mandrakes are still used in modern tweaks on ancient religions such as Wicca. Bear in mind that some of the mandrakes talked about in ancient texts may instead be referring to things like ginseng and ginger- plants that also have roots that look eerily like people.We really cannot blame them for the mistake (the resemblance to people is uncanny) but please do not take a draft of mandrake to put more junk in the trunk. You might not wake up.

Go catch an Oddish instead.

Little Shop of Horrors: Solanum mammosum.

Forgive us for changing the title for plant entries from a rather awkward modification of "Creature Feature" to something more fitting. Plants really are weird enough to warrant their own header, even when done sporadically.



Like this one. Plants are full of wonderful "what the hell?" fodder that surfaces by accident in one's daily searching. What the hell is that? Why does it look like a cow's udder? What does it taste like?

In order: That is a Solanum mammosum fruit, we have no idea why it looks like a cow's udder, and nobody who has tried it has lived. The name Solanum should have been a hint; it's related to nightshade and datura. Were you really expecting it to be innocent (y'know, aside from looking like something out of a Japanese porno)?



Innocent this fruit is not, and hooo boy does it show. The scientific name, Solanum mammosum, suggests tits; the fruit itself resembles a human breast on one end and a cow's udder on the other.  Common names for it include nipple fruit, tittyfruit, cow's udder, or "Apple of Sodom." The Japanese call it "fox face" (wow, REALLY?) and the Chinese simply refer to it as a five-fingered eggplant. Talk about seeing the same fruit from different perspectives.

The, umm...tittyfruit is native to South America, but has been cultivated as an ornamental plant almost everywhere. The Chinese are particularly fond of it due to its bright gold color. It can also be used as a treatment for certain ailments or for washing clothing. Nobody mentions using it for...pleasure. Probably a good thing.



No matter how tempting it is, do not eat this fruit. Unlike eggplants, tomatoes, and other 'innocent' Solanaceae, tittyfruit is toxic. The plant will kill you for molesting its naughty bits.

Tomorrow: MEERKATS! 

(Why, yes, my brain is, in fact, baked thanks to recent tests and a Sappho paper.)