Rhubarb Tops

[Paul Bacino]

I use the fruit/veg stems.. but what can we do with the leaves?

I'm thinking a wrap rather than use in a soup.. your ideas?

[rarerollingobject]

Erm..poisonous. Do not eat.

[gfweb]

Not sure just how poisonous the leaves are. They contain oxalic acid, which in quantity can cause problems, but I wonder what the truth is. Spinach has oxalate too and nobody has died from too much spinach as far as I know.

[gfweb]

Wikipedia says that the oxalate level in rhubarb leaves is 0.5%. This paper http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304423802001541 says that the oxalate level in spinach varies from 0.76-1.08% depending on the variety.

So unless there's other stuff in rhubarb besides oxalate, I wonder if rhubarb toxicity isn't a myth.

[rarerollingobject]

Rightio, you try it out and let us know!

Some good info here, specifically about the combination of compounds that make it poisonous, and how much would actually be required to kill you, versus just make you ill.

I do recall my cousin accidentally offed a rabbit by feeding it rhubarb leaves. Granted, I am somewhat larger than a rabbit, but doesn't seem worth taking the risk.

[Snadra]

While you probably won't drop dead on the spot if you eat them, in addition to oxalic acid, they are thought to contain another substance, Anthraquinone glycosides. See Wikipedia for more, or this website for a list of symptoms.

You can apparently use them as an ingredient in a natural insecticide.

[Snadra]

Whoops! Crosspost with RRO.

[GlorifiedRice]

While you probably won't drop dead on the spot if you eat them, in addition to oxalic acid, they are thought to contain another substance, Anthraquinone glycosides. See Wikipedia for more, or this website for a list of symptoms.

You can apparently use them as an ingredient in a natural insecticide.

Isnt Glycoside what is in Monsantos Roundup?

[gfweb]

While you probably won't drop dead on the spot if you eat them, in addition to oxalic acid, they are thought to contain another substance, Anthraquinone glycosides. See Wikipedia for more, or this website for a list of symptoms.

You can apparently use them as an ingredient in a natural insecticide.

Isnt Glycoside what is in Monsantos Roundup?

No that is not roundup. It is glyphosphate or something like that. Different stuff.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

[FoodMuse]

Sorry, but I thought this was a joke question. Unless we have some of our lovely chemists chime in, you could make yourself quite ill. It sounds like this is a chemical that may be more sensitive to some people than others.

If you do eat them, report back!

[Jenni]

Yeah, I was always taught they were poisonous. Don't try it out just for our sakes!

[Paul Bacino]

I didn't know that they were poisonous ... Thanks

But they sure look good!!

Paul

[gfweb]

Sorry, but I thought this was a joke question. Unless we have some of our lovely chemists chime in, you could make yourself quite ill. It sounds like this is a chemical that may be more sensitive to some people than others.

If you do eat them, report back!

OK. You say this with authority. How do you know?

[gfweb]

I've done a Medline search on rhubarb poisoning. Darn little is reported. A few cases over 50 years. They all speak of kidney damage from oxalate. Given that oxalate is in lots of veg, and oxalate kidney stones are really common even without rhubarb eating, you have to wonder about the source of the oxalate in these cases. Was it really all rhubarb?.

Given the greater content of oxalate in spinach I wonder about the relative risk of other veg in general. I suspect that the situation is similar to solanine poisoning from green potatoes; you'd have to eat a ton to have a problem.

So am I going to go out and eat a bunch of rhubarb greens? No.

[Peter the eater]

I recall learning that it would take an absurdly huge quantity of rhubarb leaves to make an adult sick. Still, we don't put them in the compost. Probably overkill but that's what people do around here.

[andiesenji]

Rhubarb leaves are poisonous. A fairly small amount can damage the kidneys. I have seen this personally on my grandpa's farm, not a human but five young pigs, that found a loose place in the outer kitchen garden fence. They ate some rhubarb, as well as other spring stuff - not much was big enough to attract them.

Three of the five died that night after trouble breathing and convulsions and the other two were put down because it was feared it was something contagious. The farm vet did a post mort. on one and found the rhubarb in the stomach, mostly leaves because it was not yet fully grown. After that they found the damage in the back garden.

Multiple animal deaths had to be reported to the Farm Bureau that collected statistics and my grandpa was told that this had happened to other farmers. After that a rock wall was put around that part of the garden because the wire fencing wouldn't keep the hogs out when the ground was soft after a heavy rain.

There is some information here. The poison control centers have information on this because sometimes small children do pick and chew on the leaves.

There have not been any confirmed deaths since 1960 but there have been incidents of children recovering from poisoning.

There is some good advice here.

Edited May 31, 2011 by andiesenji (log)

[sparrowgrass]

Back when I had a couple rhubarb plants, I used the leaves to mulch around the plants. I wouldn't worry a bit about putting them in the compost, but I wouldn't eat them.

[andiesenji]

The second link I tried to add to my earlier post did not get linked.

This is the link I intended to add.

[gfweb]

The second link I tried to add to my earlier post did not get linked.

This is the link I intended to add.

Great stuff. Thanks Andie!