this post was submitted on 16 May 2025
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If you can't find reliable information, you could cut one up and boil it and let it cool, and also cut one up and soak it in cold water for at least an hour, then test both with water quality test strips (amazon link). This should at least let you know if the roots are leaching any heavy metals or other common groundwater safety hazards (test a few different ones from different parts of your property).
After that if you still want to try it, you can go through the steps of the edibility test:
“Can I Eat That?” Answer the Question With the Universal Edibility Test.
How to Test if a Plant Is Edible
Though obviously this has risks. The point of the process is to expose yourself to any hazards very gradually - this doesn't eliminate the hazard.
I believe the article you are mentioning is coming with enough warning for us to understand not to use this as a foraging technic.
Test like this may be useful when starving lost in nature but certainly not as a hobbiest or even a amateur forrager.
A plant tested this way may look fine but then be undigestably in combinaison with other every-day ingredient, it can react badly with a medecine you take or be just toxic enough to poison you when you eat a full portion.
As foragers we should be extremly carefull. If we are not 100 % sure what plant this is or not 100 % it is eatable, we should NOT eat it at all.
This is a really good point, biochemical reactions can be unpredictable.