calliandra
Well-Known Member
Thanks for all the fact-sharing, guys, sadly I won't retain any of that - but no matter 
I think we need to remember that the way we are looking at things nowadays is fragmented and partial.
So researchers go look at those alkaloids, big alarms (= funding for further research = job = survival), but no big picture, all factors considered - because, it seems, we do not do well at big picture thinking?
(which is why we have religions trying to explain that big picture via imagery, myth, and ultimately, dogma, which then leads to control..... which is actually pretty cool -- hey, wouldn't I like getting people to rebel against the rat race and start a different culture of cooperation and kindness?!? Still controlling, even if the goal is anarchy? oops haha
).
So, careful! for all we know, all this info about toxicity (as we are seeing in part too - cf. content in young vs old leaves vs roots) is very dependant on the context
The experiments that led to those results, were the methods used really adequate?
Were the conditions typical or not?
Were all factors taken into account?
Or was the substance isolated by some method that never ever occurs in natural process, i.e. conjuring up a scenario where things may be happening in unusual combinations - that just isn't transferable to the real world?
This has way more relevance than we'd think!!!
Hence, I tend not to worry too much about such "findings" about age-old cultivated plants.
Especially when it comes to herbs, the knowledge of which has been targeted for eradication for a very long time...
It gets the scariest when you start looking at things with a systemic understanding of patriarchy (so NOT the man vs woman wimpy version, but as a system of control, under which men's lives suffer just as much as do women's, even though they're "on top"....)
But also very logical and clear.
I think we need to remember that the way we are looking at things nowadays is fragmented and partial.
So researchers go look at those alkaloids, big alarms (= funding for further research = job = survival), but no big picture, all factors considered - because, it seems, we do not do well at big picture thinking?
(which is why we have religions trying to explain that big picture via imagery, myth, and ultimately, dogma, which then leads to control..... which is actually pretty cool -- hey, wouldn't I like getting people to rebel against the rat race and start a different culture of cooperation and kindness?!? Still controlling, even if the goal is anarchy? oops haha
).So, careful! for all we know, all this info about toxicity (as we are seeing in part too - cf. content in young vs old leaves vs roots) is very dependant on the context
The experiments that led to those results, were the methods used really adequate?
Were the conditions typical or not?
Were all factors taken into account?
Or was the substance isolated by some method that never ever occurs in natural process, i.e. conjuring up a scenario where things may be happening in unusual combinations - that just isn't transferable to the real world?
This has way more relevance than we'd think!!!
Hence, I tend not to worry too much about such "findings" about age-old cultivated plants.
Especially when it comes to herbs, the knowledge of which has been targeted for eradication for a very long time...
It gets the scariest when you start looking at things with a systemic understanding of patriarchy (so NOT the man vs woman wimpy version, but as a system of control, under which men's lives suffer just as much as do women's, even though they're "on top"....)
But also very logical and clear.
