Method Poisonous Plants

[Untitled]

Does anyone have any knowledge of using plants for suicide?

There are several plant species that grow near me that have historically been used to kill:

• hemlock
• wild almonds (the bitter variety found in the wild has cyanide precursors)
• castor beans (from which ricin is extracted)

The Wikipedia article on hemlock says that Socrates was executed with the plant, and another article talks about a 32 year old biochemist who consumed mashed hemlock leaves with alcohol and died.

In my experience with hemlock it is really smelly, you can instantly tell that it's poisonous even just from the smell. I'm really reluctant to use it, as I think it's a slow death that is caused gradually by paralysis, slowly losing the ability to breathe.

According to the Wikipedia article on almonds they contain enough amygdalin and prunasin that they can kill a person. Those molecules are apparently broken up into hydrogen cyanide via enzymatic hydrolysis. Those molecules break up into benzaldehyde too, which gives the bitter almonds a very distinct flavor. In my experience, the wild varieties of almonds that grow near me have an extremely strong taste, which I guess tells also of the presence of cyanide. Apparently there's a documented case of a woman who had crushed a few almonds and mixed them with water, then ingested them and had a pretty severe cyanide poisoning.

In my experience eating a few bitter almonds and apricot kernel (which also contain cyanide precursors), I too felt nauseated after ingestion.
There's a discussion on stack exchange on how to extract cyanide from those plants, but it's too complicated for me.

Castor beans are probably the worst choice for suicide, as the Wikipedia article says that death can take a few days. It also sounds like an extremely unpleasant death. Ricin can be extracted from the raw beans, and it was indeed used in one famous assassination.

Overall I'm not sure if any of those plants are really well suited for suicide, and I would very much appreciate any comments from any of you who are knowledgeable.

It looks like hemlock and wild bitter almonds can both be used, but I haven't really found too much information about them.

 

[Hennessy]

About hemlock:

You are actually confusing 2 different plants, my friend: water hemlock and poison hemlock. And according to my research they are very poisonous and deadly, but they will also give you an extremely painfull death. Especially the water hemlock.

 

[Hennessy]

There are allready information available on this site about the hemlock-plants. Here is something that I copied and pasted (link: https://sanctioned-suicide.net/threads/plant-poison-megathread.5637/#post-104454 :




OK so here it is...

"A while back I did a lot of research on

-Poison Hemlock (Conium Maculatum)
-Water Hemlock (Cicuta Virosa)

For a while it was my plan to ctb by Water Hemlock but after my research I totally discarded the idea. And so should you my friends!

It is true that these two plants are very poisounous and EXTREMELY DEADLY, especially the Water Hemlock, but the problem is that they will also give you an incredible painfull death. I am really talking real and excruciating pain here! Some of you might remember the piece I wrote about this on the old Reddit SanctionedSuicide?

Since it's a little while ago I did the research, and because I changed my mind about using this plant to ctb, I have forgotten some of the details, but please believe me when I say this is painfull.

Also I would like to add that the story of Socrates' death is most likely incorrect in the way that they left the pain and suffering out of the story. They probably did this out of respect for his person. Some of you will know that the account of Socrates' death is written down and the story mentions no pain and suffering? This has caused a myth that dying from Poison Hemlock (Conium Maculatum) is painless. Even in an episode in the Poirot TV crime series there is an episode which somebody kills a man by Poison Hemlock and that the man is slowly, and with very little pain, can watch his body starts to die from losing his motions in the feets first and the heart last. But this is not true to fact!

Also, uptil about 100 years ago they did very little distinction between Conium Maculatum and Cicuta Virosa, keep that in mind if you're doing research by reading old texts.

One more little interesting fact: Back in the days of Socrates they used to execute people by using Poison Hemlock and Water Hemlock. Water Hemlock was given to the murderers and rapists and other criminals because this death was the most gruesome, and Poison Hemlock was given for political crimes, like the one Socrates was sentenced to death for.

Please believe me when I say this is not the way you want to die!"

Link: https://sanctioned-suicide.net/threads/conium-maculatum.3478/#post-48284

#19 VanHeineken, Oct 21, 2018

 

[Hennessy]

About wild almonds and castor beans I have no information, but when I did research about the hemlock-plants I got the understanding that suicide from poisonous plants are usually very painfull. You should obtain more information about these plants before you use them to ctb.

 

[sadak_the_wanderer]

If you are interested in plants in general, I suggest Wicked Plants, by Amy Stewart. I've been going over various textbooks on poisoning and that one is rather interesting.

Water hemlock: bad, poison hemlock: fine. I seem doomed to post this over and over again.

For a great deal of detail on how poison hemlock was used medicinally, consult The Old Vegetable Neurotics, by John Harley, from the 1860s. You can find the entire thing on archive.org. Roughly a quarter of the book, the first quarter, is on poison hemlock. Harley was a medical doctor who took great care to try to figure out which parts of each plant contained the desired active principles, how to to extract the necessary compounds, even going to the lengths of experimenting on himself (although he would start with a mouse and work his way up).

Yes, it was used as a medicine. In any case, the animals he put down with it did not appear to experience distress, and the people who were exposed to larger (but non-lethal) doses did not report distress.

One of the advantages of these older medical texts is that the methods tend to be less complex than current science, not as much equipment is required, much of the source materials are acquired from nature rather than Sigma Aldrich, and so forth. In short, the techniques are more reachable for someone who doesn't work in a chemistry lab.

 

[Quinlor]

I collected around 250 apple seeds and I intend hit in the blender when I get around 300. I don't know if will be enough but it's going to be an interesting test.

 

[Void115]

I collected around 250 apple seeds and I intend hit in the blender when I get around 300. I don't know if will be enough but it's going to be an interesting test.

Good luck!

 

[sleepless]

I actually thought of cyanide in apple seeds before, but never really went ahead on researching about it. Anyone here watched the TV series Ozark? One of the characters used cherry pits instead to poison her husband.

 

[Void115]

I actually thought of cyanide in apple seeds before, but never really went ahead on researching about it. Anyone here watched the TV series Ozark? One of the characters used cherry pits instead to poison her husband.

But how you can assume them? Eating seem so difficult, also the taste is terrible

 

[sleepless]

But how you can assume them? Eating seem so difficult, also the taste is terrible

You have to grind them up first. In the show she mixed the finely grinded pits into his coffee.

 

[Quinlor]

I collected around 250 apple seeds and I intend hit in the blender when I get around 300. I don't know if will be enough but it's going to be an interesting test.

So I swallowed all the seeds and maximum that I felt was headache and tachycardia ...

 

[Dutch]

So I swallowed all the seeds and maximum that I felt was headache and tachycardia ...

Biting in cherry kernels seem to release a high dose of cyanide,it's from what i know the strongest of all seeds?
wild apricots is possible to, but you need allot more of them.