God Didn’t Make These Little Green Apples

These things sound like something that should grow in Australia where just about everything is designed to kill you. Most tox people are pretty familiar with the “mayapple” or podophyllum, which is used to burn warts off your feet. These manchineel apples look delicious but cause all sorts of caustic effects due to hippomanin, phorbol, physostigmine and all sorts of other nastiness. You can’t even sit under these things because the sap will burn through your jeans and blister your buttocks. If you run the trees through a bandsaw the sawdust will melt your face (I’m exaggerating, but not really). Thanks to Safety Ranger Kevin for the article suggestion.

http://www.mnn.com/family/protection-safety/blogs/why-manchineel-might-be-earths-most-dangerous-tree