Rhubarb

[Michaelangelica]

I just found this incredible web ressource on Rhubarb and thought i would like to share it with you
I was reseaching a reply to one of those annoying, ill-informed, botanically illiterate, dumb articles that pop up every few months about POISONOUS !!! plants or herbs. there must be a secret publishers system for recycling this rubbish.
I was looking for the LD50 of many plants and stumbled across this site.

From an MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) for Oxalic acid, LD50 (LD50 is the Median Lethal Dose, which is the dose of a drug or chemical predicted to produce a lethal effect in 50 percent of the subjects to whom the dose is given) in rats is 375 mg/kg.
So for a person about 145 pounds (65.7 kg) that's about 25 grams of pure oxalic acid required to cause death.
Rhubarb leaves are probably around 0.5% oxalic acid, so that you would need to eat quite a large serving of leaves, like 5 kg (11 lbs), to get that 24 grams of oxalic acid. Note that it will only require a fraction of that to cause sickness. 57,58,60,61

The Rhubarb Compendium

http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/

Table Of Contents

Table Of Contents
1 - Botanical Information
1.1 - What is Rhubarb?
1.2 - What are the different species of rhubarb?
1.3 - What plants are called rhubarb but really are not?
2 - Rhubarb Varieties
2.1 - What varieties of Rhubarb are available?
3 - Rhubarb History
3.1 - Early History
3.2 - Roots in Europe
3.3 - Appearance in America
4 - Rhubarb Festivals
5 - Rhubarb Sources
5.1 - Mail Order Sources of Rhubarb
6 - Growing Rhubarb
6.1 - Climate and Growing Region
6.2 - Soil
6.3 - Fertilization
6.4 - Planting and Spacing
6.5 - Growing
6.5.1 - General
6.5.2 - Growing Season
6.5.3 - Frost Damage
6.5.4 - How do I prepare my rhubarb plants for winter
6.6 - What do I do with the seedpods?
6.7 - Can I compost my rhubarb leaves
6.8 - Do I need to thin my overgrown rhubarb?
7 - Forcing Rhubarb In Winter
7.1 - Forcing Rhubarb indoors
7.1.1 - Step by step: Forcing Rhubarb
8 - Rhubarb Propagation
8.1 - Dividing and Thinning Rhubarb
8.1.1 - Step by Step: Dividing A Rhubarb Plant
8.2 - Growing Rhubarb From Seeds
8.2.1 - Step by Step: Growing Rhubarb from seeds
8.2.2 - Growing Rhubarb as an annual
8.3 - Rhubarb Tissue Culture
9 - Culinary use of Rhubarb
9.1 - Harvesting and Preparation
9.2 - Storing Rhubarb
9.2.1 - Refrigeration
9.2.2 - Caning
9.2.3 - Freezing
9.2.4 - Drying
9.3 - Nutritional information
10 - Rhubarb Recipes
10.1 - Rhubarb Bars Recipes (and squares and such)
10.2 - Rhubarb Bread Recipes
10.3 - Rhubarb Cake Recipes
10.4 - Rhubarb Cobblers (and crisps, fools, crunches, and crumbles)
10.5 - Rhubarb Cookie Recipes
10.6 - Rhubarb Desserts
10.7 - Rhubarb Drinks (other than wine)
10.8 - Frozen Rhubarb Recipes
10.9 - Rhubarb Jam (and jellies, conserves, preserves and marmalades)
10.10 - Rhubarb Muffins
10.11 - Miscellaneous Rhubarb Things
10.12 - Rhubarb Pies
10.13 - Rhubarb Puddings (and yougurts, sobet, triffel and frozen deserts)
10.14 - Rhubarb Salads (and salad dressings)
10.15 - Rhubarb Sauces (and chutney, relish, salsa, compote and stewed rhubarb)
10.16 - Rhubarb Soup
10.17 - Rhubarb Tart Recipes
10.18 - Rhubarb Wine (and other fermented forms of rhubarb)
11 - Medicinal Uses
11.1 - Medicine
11.2 - This is new Stuff
12 - Other Uses of Rhubarb
12.1 - Cleaning pots and pans
12.2 - Hair Color
12.3 - Insecticide
12.3.1 - Recipe 1
12.3.2 - Recipe 2
12.4 - Rhubarb inspired art
12.4.1 - Paintings
12.4.2 - Music
The Rhubarb Tart Song
12.4.3 - Poetry
Rhubarb Limericks
12.5 - CFC control
12.6 - Rhubarb Paper
13 - Poison Information
13.1 - The poison in rhubarb
13.2 - Chemical Composition of Rhubarb
13.3 - More about Oxalic acid
13.3.1 - How toxic is rhubarb?
13.3.2 - Symptoms of Oxalic Acid Poisoning
13.3.3 - Precautions for rhubarb gardening
13.3.4 - New stuff added
14 - Photo Credits
15 - Information about The Rhubarb compnedium
15.1 - Copyright
15.2 - Disclaimer
15.3 - How do I contact The Rhubarb Compendium?
15.4 - How can I request permission to use pictures from this web site?
16 - The Rhubarb compnedium Needs you
Table Of Contents

I have only had a quick look though he site, but the only thing missing I think is info, on the Chinese Rubarbs,

[Grahame]

That is an awesome compendium! Me thinks someone loves his rhubarb.

On the poisonous thing, I once read somewhere that carrots where carcinogenic, but you had to eat something like 3 truck loads a day. :rolleyes:

[gardenlen]

wll all come bac to there's a risk in everything hey so long as we know what that potential is then we can take appropriate precautions, lots of plants have toxic values in our gardens but then no one so far has died not sure about angels trumpet and kds might have been some fatalities there? for me as i don't want to end up feeling sick i'll stick to eating the stems.

len

[greenmachine]

I have always stewed ruhbarb but after watching a river cottage episode the Other day tried baking it drizeled in honey , with some home made custard it was terrific

[Michaelangelica]

O please!
I just realised I haven't eaten for eight hours!
Poor Me now for a bit of dried toast

[Michaelangelica]

Baked Rhubarb Could Help Fight Cancer

ScienceDaily (Feb. 12, 2010) — Eating rhubarb baked in a crumble is not only tasty it may also be the best way to take advantage of its health benefits, and could lead to the development of new cancer treatments.

Researchers have found that baking British garden rhubarb for 20 minutes dramatically increases its levels of anti-cancerous chemicals. The findings from academics at Sheffield Hallam University, together with the Scottish Crop Research Institute, were published in the journal Food Chemistry.

These chemicals, called polyphenols, have been shown to selectively kill or prevent the growth of cancer cells,

Food Chemistry, Volume 119, Issue 2, 15 March 2010, Pages 758-764 Gordon J. McDougall, Pat Dobson and Nikki Jordan-Mahy
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0211212117.htm