Tasty, but Dangerous!. Plants and People. The ripe fruit of mayapple is edible and tasty, but watch out! The rest of the plant, including the unripe fruit, is toxic. The rhizome was used, very carefully, as medicine. It contains podophyllotoxin, a chemical that has anticancer activity. Two cancer drugs, etoposide and teniposide, are made from podophyllotoxin. It is also used to treat warts. The Cherokee and Menominee peoples used mayapple to repel insects from plants in their fields.
The ripe fruit of mayapple is edible and tasty, but watch out! The rest of the plant, including the unripe fruit, is toxic. The rhizome was used—very carefully—as medicine. It contains podophyllotoxin, a chemical that has anticancer activity. Two cancer drugs, etoposide and teniposide, are made from podophyllotoxin. It is also used to treat warts. The Cherokee and Menominee peoples used mayapple to repel insects from plants in their fields.
Location. 38° 36.673′ N, 90° 15.559′ W. Marker is in St. Louis, Missouri. It is in Missouri Botanical Garden. Marker can be reached from Shaw Boulevard west of Tower Grove Avenue, on the left when traveling west. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 4344 Shaw Boulevard, Saint Louis MO 63110, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Credits. This page was last revised on July 18, 2023. It was originally submitted on April 1, 2023, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia. This page has been viewed 53 times since then and 6 times this year. Photos:1, 2. submitted on April 1, 2023, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia.
