SC - Poisonous Tomatoes?

Sun Nov 26 13:37:53 PST 2000

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I've been searching the web, and have found a few tidbits:

Pierandrea Mattioli in 1544 is supposed to provide the first European 
reference to the tomato, and several people claim that he identified 
the relationship to nightshade and said tomatoes were poisonous. 
According to Longone (I think) the quote about eating tomatoes fried 
in oil is also from 1544, which suggests that it is probably from the 
same source.

Another webbed source says that Mattioli first described tomatoes as 
"a kind of eggplant" and later as an "unhealthy apple."

A message in the florigium quotes an edition of Gerard's Herbal as saying:

"In Spaine and those hot regions they used to eat the Apples prepared 
and boiled with pepper, salt and oyle:  but they yeeld very little 
nourishment to the body, and the same naught and corrupt."

So my current guess is that Mattioli:

a. Identified a relationship to nightshade (which eggplant is also related to)
b. Knew perfectly well that people were eating them and not dying
c. But for some reason concluded that they weren't good for you--just 
as Platina asserted that some of the things he gave recipes for were 
bad for you.

Out of that modern writers spun the "tomatoes were considered 
poisonous because they were related to the deadly nightshade" story.

But that is only a guess. Perhaps someone with access to a good 
library can find a copy of Mattioli's 1544 book and check what he 
actually says.
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David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/
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<div>I've been searching the web, and have found a few tidbits:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Pierandrea Mattioli in 1544</font> is
supposed to provide the first European reference to the tomato, and
several people claim that he identified the relationship to
nightshade and said tomatoes were poisonous. According to Longone (I
think) the quote about eating tomatoes fried in oil is also from
1544, which suggests that it is probably from the same source.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Another webbed source says that Mattioli first described
tomatoes as "a kind of eggplant" and later as an
"unhealthy apple."</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>A message in the florigium quotes an edition of Gerard's Herbal
as saying:</div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">"In Spaine and those hot regions they
used to eat the Apples prepared and boiled with pepper, salt and
oyle:  but they yeeld very little nourishment to the body, and
the same naught and corrupt."</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>So my current guess is that Mattioli:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>a. Identified a relationship to nightshade (which eggplant is
also related to)</div>
<div>b. Knew perfectly well that people were eating them and not
dying</div>
<div>c. But for some reason concluded that they weren't good for
you--just as Platina asserted that some of the things he gave recipes
for were bad for you.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Out of that modern writers spun the "tomatoes were
considered poisonous because they were related to the deadly
nightshade" story.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>But that is only a guess. Perhaps someone with access to a good
library can find a copy of Mattioli's 1544 book and check what he
actually says.</div>

<div>-- <br>
David/Cariadoc<br>
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/</div>
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