How Realistic Was the Poisonous Fruit on ‘The White Lotus’?

R.It is the white lotus Creators began to grow seeds around the deadly Pongbong tree in Thailand in the first episode.

“What is supposed to do here throughout the week without my phone?” Saxon Bam Pam asked. “Eat a handful of fruit?” Until then, Bam’s response was clearly predicted with future events: “We have a lot of amazing fruits here, but I will not eat it,” she replied. “This is the fruit of the Great Pong Bong tree, and toxic fruit seeds.”

In the end, Tim Ratifa threw Bong Bong’s seeds in the mixer – and ended up with Lochlan’s poisoning by mistake, which he recovered after that. But how realistic filming? Medical poison scientists asked what to know about the so-called “suicide tree”-and how Luchelan managed to stay.

The “suicide tree” is famous in Southeast Asia

Throughout this season of White LotusBin Naman got the same text from his friends again and again: “Is this tree real?” This is definitely, tell them. The “suicide tree”, as it is often called – also known as the Pong Pong Tree or, more formally, Serbera Odolm – widely in places such as India, Thailand and the Pacific Islands, says Naman, director of medicinal plant research in San Diego plant.

Each part of the Pong Pong tree is toxic, but the leaves and bark are not as strong as seeds. that it It has been used long ago For both killing and suicide in Southeast Asia.

It is fully reasonable to believe that these trees will grow in the white Lotus feature, despite their danger. “People have definitely knew hundreds if not thousands of years that this is toxic,” he says. If you live in an area where Pong Pong trees are prevalent, you will be well aware of the tree risks. “These are the types of things that are taught in the family or perhaps even in schools,” says Naman.

It kills by targeting the heart

Tree seeds contain heart glycosides, which are also found in plants such as Foxglove and Oleander It can have significant effects on the heart function. Species specified in the Pong Pong Tree (including Serprin, Serpruoside, and Nerifolin) are particularly fatal and work by attacking the heart – a huge muscle that requires or overpowering small electric shocks, which then pumps the blood to every organ in the body.

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Dr. Mary Wrang, a medical toxic specialist at Indiana University, says that in order for the heart to continue to pump, it needs a mixture of specified electrolytes, including sodium and potassium. These seeds “poison that pump, then get electric deformities”, she says. This leads to slow heart rate, low blood pressure, separation between the upper and lower rooms of the heart, and eventually death. Swallowing can also cause hyperbuquassium, or serious levels of potassium.

It can be a horrific way to die

Some people who intend to listen to the seeds of Pong Pong will be tired and fainted because their heart slows down, and then they will die. But others will face a brutal end. “There are people who will get vomiting sessions for hours as their heart stops slowly-the body tries to take out everything, because it is attacked,” says Naman. Some people “will have this huge laxative effect, and they are only on the ground they throw and diarrhea.” He adds: There is no way to predict exactly how someone will be affected.

Don’t you taste it in juice?

Evan Gileard, a toxin scientist at the Analytical Poison Science Laboratory in France, says the seeds of the Pong Pong tree enjoy “moderate bitter taste.” However, it is easy to hide a more bitter drink, such as coffee, or in a sweet drink. What about shaking, like Lochlan drinks? “No problem,” Gilad says, “provided that the seeds are ground and already added.”

All that was immediately

in White LotusLochlan vomits in the pool and then collapsed – dead. This is a realistic portrayal, says Dr. Joshua King, Medical Director of the Maryland Center for Pass. (King was absent to the end because he was traveling home from the Medical Poison Conference, where photographing the Bong Bong tree was a hot theme.)

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Research indicates Vomiting is one of the most common symptoms associated with swallowing the Bong Bong seed. “Many different toxins will make you throw,” says King. “You can almost think about vomiting as a defensive system against toxins.” Mice, for example, are unable to vomit, which is why mice poison works well. He says, on the other hand, they are more likely to start getting rid of throwing when they swallow something toxic. However, throwing does not necessarily mean that you removed the poison from your system – and it may have already affected the Lochlan’s heart.

Everything happened very quickly

When Dr. Michael Levin, an emergency doctor at the University of California in Los Angeles, the final, a couple’s plot points emerged as unrealistic. Lochlan seems to be getting sick immediately after he dropped the poisoned juice, which will not be the case usually. “The timing is definitely unnatural,” he says. “I did not expect in real life that someone would be unconscious, then after two minutes, their father is holding and saying” Go back to “, and they are fine.”

Levin adds that a more accurate photography will have symptoms to appear at least an hour. in Case study Based on six cases of swallowing the reported Pongbong seed for American toxins, Wermit found that the amount of time between eating seeds and the diversity of developing symptoms. Two patients became symptoms after three hours, while it took the last 15 hours to start experimenting with symptoms. (Although the tree does not grow in the United States, people in the study of Wermith ordered the seeds of Pong Pong online, they are easily available on the Internet, she says, emergency doctors should be more aware of them.)

Why did Lochlan not die?

“The dose is making poison,” said Paracelsus once. This is the slogan of medical poison scientists, and Wrang says: Everything is poisonous if you consume enough of it. Most likely, Lochlan did not simply consume a large amount of enough Pong Pong seeds to be fatal.

There is no one amount of poison that guarantees it to be fatal. Wrameoth says that a number of factors make a difference, including the tree era: “Is it a young plant in which it is barely tusn, or a firm plant that contains a lot of poison?” She says the amount that someone will make is “very predictable.” “It is not as if you were telling me that you took 325 acetaminophen tablets,” she added. “I can predict the toxicity with that. Natural things, it’s a roll of dice.”

Will he not get sick for the rest of Ratevo after getting a few sips of Tim Benia Culaladas? Not necessarily. “Maybe they haven’t got enough to urge toxicity,” says Warmeouth. It adds that it is reasonable to assume that if the cardiac glycalid is reduced with other components in the Benia Colata, then no symptoms or dead will become.

Deporting the nearest hospital

We forget to go home to North Carolina: Let’s hope that Ratvice has got Luchelan to the Emergency Room, the main. Wermuth faces difficulty believing that he would have remained without immediate intervention. “There is no good way to get it [the toxin] “Outside your system,” she says, but doctors usually manage medications used to treat low heart rate and low blood pressure, as well as high potassium.

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There is also a “antidote” for Bong Bong seeds, although Wrang notes that they use the term loosely. A prescription drug called Digxin has a dose of heart glycoside to help treat heart failure and atrial fibrillation. She says the drug can “slow down the heart rate.” “But if you get a lot of it, your heart is not beating well, and you will get heartbreak disorder.” In these cases, patients are given Digoxin immune fabThey are antibodies that work “with varying degrees of success.” “She is derived from sheep poisoning with djoxin, then she makes antibodies that can be associated with migquoxin in your blood,” she says. “It helps to withdraw it from the heart.”

Levin agrees that Luchelan would have needed hospital treatment; Simply restore the pool at the white lotus was unrealistic. “I don’t expect someone to recover quickly,” he says.

Seed as a weapon for killing

Luchelan was of death by the seeds of the tree – making it one of the lucky ones.

according to research Under the leadership of Gileard, there were more than 500 cases of poisoning of the deadly Pongbong tree between 1989 and 1999 in the southwestern state of Kerala. “As far as we know, there is no plant in the world responsible for many deaths through suicide like an Odollam tree,” wrote Gilad and his team at the time. But they theory that the actual number of deaths – including both suicide and murders – were likely to be much higher, as it is difficult to determine poisoning on the ordinary investigator. Gilad says that a small number of laboratories all over the world are able to determine Cerber toxins, which means that the seeds “will remain unidentified in the vast majority of cases.” While Timothy Ratelv may not escape money laundering, it is possible that no one realizes that Luchelan has eaten Bong Pong seeds.