To: "'North American Fruit Explorers'" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: RE: [NAFEX] wintergreen berries
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 13:56:11 -0700
I hope I didn't mislead anyone about the safety of eating wintergreen
berries. I was talking about 98% pure wintergreen extract. According
to http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:PqvX9cWkp2cJ:homedistiller.org/flavou
r.htm+wintergreen+oil+yield&hl=en
the wintergreen plant yields about 0.6% of this oil. A teaspoon of oil
is produced from 167 teaspoons (3.5 cups) of the plant. Eating that
much would be hard to do. Eating a few berries or leaves seems pretty
safe.
-Mark
-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Mark Lee
Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2004 1:00 PM
To: 'North American Fruit Explorers'
Subject: RE: [NAFEX] wintergreen berries
I was looking into the toxicity of wintergreen oil (1 teaspoon of 98%
pure methyl salicylate, the equivalent of 14 extra strength aspirins,
can be deadly to toddlers). Wintergreen is a flavoring in a carbonated
beverage called Birch Beer. This is made from the bark of the birch
called Betula lenta. Here is a site that talks about this: http://www.root-beer.info/birch.html
Three mouse clicks from this page brought me to this page that found me
laughing to myself: http://www.root-beer.info/others/celray.html
Have you ever heard of celery flavored soda? You learn something every
day.
-Mark Lee, Seattle
-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Mark Lee
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2004 9:34 AM
To: 'North American Fruit Explorers'
Subject: [NAFEX] wintergreen berries
I bought a wintergreen plant (Gaultheria procumbens) at a farmers market
last weekend. The pinkish-red berries were the largest I have seen,
almost 3/4" diameter. They looked like cherries hanging on the small
bush. The guy selling them didn't know the berries were edible! Are
wintergreen berries this size unusual?
-Mark Lee, Seattle, zone 8
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