Question:

I have read that rose hip seeds contain cyanide, is it truly safe to consume the tea with ground seeds?

Answer:

Some species of Rosaceae family do contain a small amount of cyanide. However I can find no reference in any scientific journals stating that rose hip (Rosa canina) seeds are toxic.

Not consuming rose hips would be a little like saying “don’t eat apples” because their seeds contain cyanide too.

Ray Mears in his “Wild Food” book mentions on page 189 that Rosaceae “…protect their fruits and seeds (particularly the kernels of their fruit stones) by lacing them with compounds called cyanogenic glycosides that release cyanide as soon as any cells are damaged…”. But Mears is talking in general here as he is referring to the whole of the Rosaceae family, rather than one species.

Thomas J. Elpel on page 101 in his book “Botany in a Day” states “…the seeds are nutritious too and should be eaten.”

A reader picked Elpel up on this claim (again he lists no scientific reference to their edibility), saying “I’ve always been told (by at least one well-renowned primitive skills instructor) that they are inedible or even poisonous.”

Elpel replies on his website, “In twenty years I’ve never come across any reference to the seeds of rose hips being poisonous, except that they are hairy and could potentially become a choking hazard.

It is easy to make a statement of fact based on ones own personal experience. Does that mean you can trust the information? That depends, and as I have previously written, you need to proceed with caution when eating any wild food.

As far as I am concerned my family and I have no problem making a rose hip tea which includes rose hip seeds.

So what does the science say?

Well there is considerable reference to the Rosa canina seeds being nutritious and used for the treatment of chronic pain. One would think that if rose hip seeds where in anyway toxic, that it would have been made very clear in the research.

At the end of the day, you have to decide whether to try a wild food or not…

• A systematic review on the Rosa canina effect and efficacy profiles.
• The evidence for clinical efficacy of rose hip and seed: a systematic review.
• A powder made from seeds and shells of a rose-hip subspecies (Rosa canina).
• Nutrient composition of rose (Rosa canina) seed and oils.
• Rose hip (Rosa canina) oil obtained from waste hip seeds by different extraction methods.
• A one-year survey on the use of a powder from Rosa canina lito in acute exacerbations of chronic pain.
• Does the hip powder of Rosa canina (rosehip) reduce pain in osteoarthritis patients?

Today I’m going to be covering a simple “Tolerance Test” to make sure that your body doesn’t react adversely after you eat wild food plants.

As my old mentor used to say: “Assume Nothing, Test Everything”

Even though you might have identified a plant with 100% certainty, until you eat a small sample of it, you do not know how your body will react.

This isn’t scare mongering, but it’s just a fact that some people have very negative reactions to certain food stuffs due to an allergy or some such. You won’t know if you have an allergy to a plant until you try it, which is why you must not start out consuming large amounts of a specific plant until you know how your body reacts.

WARNING! Do not eat any wild edible plant unless you are 100% certain of its identification.

Too often people talk about wild food plants using their English names. This is fine if the participants all understand exactly which plant is being talked about, however many times English names are used when it would be far better to make certain that the plant being discussed is referred to by its Botanical/Scientific name (Latin).

What is referred by one English name in Devon may differ in another part of the country, and due to the global nature of the Internet English names become confusing once you start communicating cross-borders.

Rule 1: Always make certain when talking about wild food, that you are clear on the Botanical name, that way there is very little room for doubt. For example the English name for Taraxacum officinale is Dandelion, and the Botanical name for Dandelion is Taraxacum officinale. Well I did want to make that clear

Rule 2: Make absolutely certain that you have made a 100% positive identification before ever trying out wild food.

Rule 3: If you are in the slightest bit of doubt about a plants identification, do not try it. There are too many other plants you can try out. As the adage goes “If in doubt, find another plant”.

Rule 4: Assuming you are 100% certain you have the right edible plant in front of you, proceed with the “Tolerance Test”…

• Take a small piece of the raw edible part of the plant (e.g. the tip of a Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) leaf. Put it in the front of your mouth and bite on it a few times, then spit it out. Wait for 60 minutes. If you experience no bad reaction, proceed…
• Now try a larger piece of the plant (edible part only!). In our example of Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), try boiling the leaf and eating and swallowing a quarter of it. Wait for 60 minutes and see how you feel. If you don’t experience any negative reaction, proceed…
• Try a tablespoon amount mixed into a suitable recipe. If you do not experience any negative reaction after 60 minutes, you’re body should be OK consuming that specific wild edible plant in larger quantities. But go slowly.

IMPORTANT! The “Tolerance Test” is only to be tried on wild edible plants that you are 100% certain you have identified correctly. It is not to be used to test unknown, unidentified plants, that you are attempting to discover whether they are edible.

Only ever eat wild edible plants that you have 100% identified correctly, and never, ever, eat large quantities of wild edible plants that you have not performed the ‘Tolerance Test” on.