Most delicious poison : the story of nature's toxins-from spices to vices

Summary: "Based on cutting-edge science in the fields of evolution, chemistry, and neuroscience, Most Delicious Poison reveals the origins of toxins produced by plants, mushrooms, microbes, and even some animals, the mechanisms that animals evolved to overcome them, and how a co-evolutionary arms race made its way into the human experience. This perpetual chemical war not only drove the diversification of life on Earth, but is also intimately tied to our own successes and failures. You will never look at a houseplant, mushroom, fruit, vegetable, or even the last 500 years of human history, the same way again"--

Record details

ISBN: 9780316386579 (hardcover)
Physical Description: print
295 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: New York : Little, Brown Spark / Little, Brown and Company, 2023.

Content descriptions

General Note:	Includes index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Introduction -- Deadly daisies -- Forests of phenolics and flavonoids -- Toxic, titillating, tumor-killing terpenoids -- Dogbane and digitalis -- Hijacked hormones -- Abiding alkaloids -- Caffeine and nicotine -- Devil's breath and silent death -- Opioid overlords -- The herbivore's dilemma -- The spice of life -- Nutmeg, tea, opium, and cinchona -- The future pharmacopoeia.