Talk:Henut Taui

ashwagandha and celery root a source of nicotine?
Since when are ashwagandha and celery a source of nicotine? Andre🚐 04:02, 18 September 2022 (UTC)


 * @Andrevan The source, available from the Wikipedia library, says "Duke’s Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Database lists twenty-three nicotine-containing plants in addition to tobacco (Nicotiana tahacum). Of these, two - Withania somnifera and Apium graveolens - were know n to the Egyptians (Manniche 1993), and the latter, celery, was the more likely to he used as a food." Doug Weller  talk 10:19, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks Doug. Found the full text in TWL per your note, though basically the article quote is the majority of the info. And in fact other sources do corroborate ashwagandha and celery containing low amounts of nicotine. I'd like to see what Manniche 1993 - An Ancient Egyptian Herbal says, but Counsell concludes, Nicotine has been found in Egyptian mummies in small quantities consistent with a trace dietary source, possibly derived from celery, but not at the levels expected from tobacco use. The levels of cocaine reported in South American mummies are consistent with the habit of coca leaf chewing. The levels reported in Egyptian mummies are very low, below the level agreed upon for a positive result by some laboratories and at the limit of detection by the technical standards for GCMS in the early 1990s. The results are therefore unreliable. The possibility of modern contamination cannot be ruled out, but either way, it seems highly unlikely that the ancient Egyptians were exposed to cocaine during their lifetimes. Andre🚐 15:08, 18 September 2022 (UTC)