zombie juice

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Angel's trumpet

Continuing our impromptu series on plants to avoid, this one may not drop you dead in your tracks but it could render you senseless: out-of-it, zombie-fied.

Often found on lists of the world's Ten Most Dangerous Plants, angel's trumpet is no heavenly agent.

To paraphrase the Popular Mechanics website, the droopy, gorgeous angel trumpet (genus: Brugmansia, multiple species), native to regions of South America, packs a powerful punch of toxins containing atropine, hyoscyamine and scopolamine, [yielding a potent cocktail] that leaves victims unaware of what they are doing but entirely conscious. (I haven't been in such a state since college.) 

Scopolamine can be absorbed through the skin and mucous membranes, allowing evil-doers to simply blow the powdered plant into a victim's face. There is apparently one documented account of a zombie-fied man moving all of his possessions out of his apartment (and into the hands of his robbers) without remembering any of it. Does that make him an accomplice to the crime? Let's ask Judge Judy. 

Yep. It's zombie juice. Stay away! 


- Photo taken at an undisclosed location for fear zombies may overrun my part of town and what with the baseball playoffs, I really don't want to deal with it. Can you believe the Cubs!

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