I’m now blogging at Substack. My Substack deliberately avoids sticking to any particular topic or genre. Some of it is reminiscent of things I’ve put on LessWrong, but I also post my visual art, songs, recipes, and absolutely anything else I feel like. Check it out if you wanna know what I’m up to these days!
Re: Your tea recipe, beware: California bay laurel leaves contain umbellulone, which is toxic and can cause methemoglobinemia. (Edit: But it’s not clear if anyone’s ever gotten methemoglobinemia from consuming California bay laurel leaves.)
Thank you for caring. I believe this would be worth thinking about if I planned to consume large quantities of concentrated bay laurel oil, but I don’t believe it’s worth thinking about in the context of whole leaves for culinary use. I’d change my mind if somebody found at least one case of methemoglobinemia from ordinary culinary use of whole Umbellularia californica leaves.
If anybody wants to be cautious with this recipe, I recommend spending your attention on proper identification of Bay laurel, not to mention the turkey tail mushrooms that also go into it!
(Though tbh since you’re steeping a whole mushroom and not consuming solid chunks, it’s the lowest risk way to use a mushroom in food. The dangerous mushroom stuff isn’t water soluble. Even the most deadly mushrooms are safe to lick as long as you don’t swallow solid chunks.)
That makes sense. I just looked into it more and the only primary source I could find on it is Drake and Stuhr 1935, “Some pharmacological and bactericidal properties of umbellulone” https://doi.org/10.1002/jps.3080240304, who injected umbellulone into guinea pigs and added it to vials of blood.
I’m now blogging at Substack. My Substack deliberately avoids sticking to any particular topic or genre. Some of it is reminiscent of things I’ve put on LessWrong, but I also post my visual art, songs, recipes, and absolutely anything else I feel like. Check it out if you wanna know what I’m up to these days!
Re: Your tea recipe, beware: California bay laurel leaves contain umbellulone, which is toxic and can cause methemoglobinemia. (Edit: But it’s not clear if anyone’s ever gotten methemoglobinemia from consuming California bay laurel leaves.)
Thank you for caring. I believe this would be worth thinking about if I planned to consume large quantities of concentrated bay laurel oil, but I don’t believe it’s worth thinking about in the context of whole leaves for culinary use. I’d change my mind if somebody found at least one case of methemoglobinemia from ordinary culinary use of whole Umbellularia californica leaves.
If anybody wants to be cautious with this recipe, I recommend spending your attention on proper identification of Bay laurel, not to mention the turkey tail mushrooms that also go into it!
(Though tbh since you’re steeping a whole mushroom and not consuming solid chunks, it’s the lowest risk way to use a mushroom in food. The dangerous mushroom stuff isn’t water soluble. Even the most deadly mushrooms are safe to lick as long as you don’t swallow solid chunks.)
That makes sense. I just looked into it more and the only primary source I could find on it is Drake and Stuhr 1935, “Some pharmacological and bactericidal properties of umbellulone” https://doi.org/10.1002/jps.3080240304, who injected umbellulone into guinea pigs and added it to vials of blood.