Pokeweed has a long history as a source of food and medicine. So, why is it when you search for information about this plant, Google’s search engine results begin with articles claiming that it is extremely dangerous and deadly? Technically, ingestion of pokeweed could lead to death but that outcome is rare. Consider the information that comes up in your search results were likely not written by traditional healers or clinical herbalists. The intention may be to educate and keep people safe but many of these articles lack in-depth information and exclude the fact pokeweed can be worked with safely and has been for centuries, if not longer.
People in Appalachia and the Southern United States continue to eat poke sallet and experienced herbalists work with the berries (and in some cases the root) for herbal medicine. Whether you personally work with herbs or not, I believe its important to know what you’re actually avoiding and I aim to demystify this native plant I know intimately.
We know not to believe everything we read online but that’s easily forgotten when the discussion is the toxicity of plants it seems. Fear is powerful that way. I often see worried parents posting on social media warning others not to allow their children near this old friend of mine and I completely understand why. Safety is our number one priority as parents. Still, this game of toxicity telephone has resulted in pokeweed being further demonized as a poisonous plant that should be ripped out of our neighborhoods and discarded.
The fact some folks have mistaken pokeberries for elderberries has made this misinformation even harder to address because you certainly don’t want to work with pokeberries thinking you have elderberries while making syrup. This is another reason why sharing accurate and up-to-date herbal information is important. A lot of time-tested herbal knowledge isn’t available online for quick reference by the public and this is also for your safety because working with plants medicinally isn’t something to be taken lightly or without historical context.
Here I will unpack some aspects of pokeweed’s toxicity and offer some recommendations for how to approach it — if at all. When in doubt: don’t. I will not be making a case for you to work with this misunderstood plant because the warnings are based on a kernel of truth which is that mishandled, pokeweed can upset your stomach or in rare cases — lead to fatality.
Pokeweed facts
Pokeweed is indigenous to North America and is an herbaceous perennial. The scientific name is phytolacca Americana (previously phytolacca decandra). Mature plants can get up to 12 ft or higher and have magenta stems and deep purple berries that may appear black. The berries are juicy and this juice is colored by the betalain alkaloids which are not toxic but antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. Pokeberries also contain saponins which can upset your stomach and erode the GI mucosa according to clinical herbalist Lisa Ganora. It is meant to be worked with in very low doses to avoid this.
The real threat of lethal toxicity comes from the seeds within the berries. The seeds contain a serious toxin called PAP (pokeweed antiviral protein). Eating the seeds, especially if they’ve been crushed, is what can kill you. Don’t let the name antiviral protein confuse you. PAP is not a useful antiviral constituent, it is what is poisonous to humans because when ingested it attacks our cells and puts our ribosomes out of commission. This leads to cell death and is what kills people.
Working with pokeweed safely
If you want to work with this plant, I recommend doing more homework and observation before hand. This article is just meant to dispel wide-spread misinformation about pokeweed and hopefully relieve some of the fear you may harbor for this potent medicinal and food. As I said, there is a long history of people working with pokeweed as food, medicine, and botanical inks and dyes — especially in communities of enslaved Black people and Native Americans. There is probably a whole book’s worth of discussion that could be had on why BIPOC foods and medicines are demonized aggressively. For now I will just say, I do not think it is an unrelated coincidence and that some of this fear may stem from European settlers mishandling and improperly preparing pokeweed, and poisoning themselves.
Often I see it suggested that touching pokeweed without gloves causes rashes. I have never had that happen in all years of harvesting leaves and berries. Anyone can be allergic to any plant so maybe this is the case for others but the root is what I have learned not to handle without gloves. If this is your first time learning about pokeweed, you don’t need to be touching the root anyway. I recommend leaving it alone and to professionals.
If you want to eat pokeweed safely, choose the leaves of a young plant. (It cooks down to very little so make sure you have a “mess” of greens as my Nahnah would say or don’t bother.) So, you need to be able to correctly identify poke before the magenta is visible on the stems and long before the dark, gem-colored berries appear. Then when you are sure, without a doubt, you have pokeweed in your hands — you’ll want to parboil the leaves and repeat this step two more times. Meaning, you will partially boil the leaves three times and pour the water off after each boiling session. This is why its an ancestral food and you don’t see this offered in restaurants much. It is a lot of work to prepare and the liability of upsetting someones’ stomach from mishandling isn’t a risk most chefs want to take.
Once you’ve got them parboiled three times with the water drained, you’ll want to mix in your fat. Grannies down here swear by lard or a hambone. Choose whatever fat you like to cook with and mix in your preferred seasonings. I find it tasty with chunk of homemade cornbread and a slice of raw onion but its not something I eat often because it takes time and is labor-intensive. Most people here now have access to collards and other greens that can be stewed quicker with less risk of stomach upset.
Different families have different specifications on how they like their poke sallet but this is the basic idea and what I can share here as it relates to safety. In other words, your grandma’s shortcuts are probably fine but I can’t recommend them to people who have never met pokeweed on a plate before. Proceed with caution, as I said there is some logic in why people will repeat the blanket statements about toxicity.
Clearly, you have to develop a relationship with this plant to know exactly what you’re getting when you find pokeweed early enough to eat. A lot of folks simply don’t want to do that — and for them I say: don’t. This may be redundant but I want to stress that I don’t recommend cooking pokeweed once the stems are red and the berries are visible. Wait until next year. Or make botanical ink with the berries instead by mixing the a small amount of the juice with salt and vinegar. You can find recipes for this (I have one on my Patreon here) but you can experiment with the ratio of these simple ingredients.
As for making medicine, I don’t recommend you approach the root at all unless you’re a clinical herbalist (or learned from traditional healers in a lineage who’ve worked with the root extensively) with the training to do so properly. I have been working with this plant for years and grew up eating poke sallet and I do not work with the root. The root has a higher concentration of toxic constituents but know that when worked with properly, it can be a facilitator for healing. Worked with appropriately, the root’s medicine is low-dose and taken with caution under the care of a traditional knowledge keeper or experienced herbalist.
The berries on the other hand, with the exception of the toxic seeds that can kill, have a ton of healing potential the mainstream has collectively denied or overlooked. To make pokeberry succus safely, I highly recommend this video by clinical herbalist Lisa Ganora. She has a wealth of herbal knowledge and unpacks more of the constituents in this video as well. She also expands on what I have shared here about the toxicity of the seeds.
This educational video on Instagram from High Garden Tea shows how some people do purposefully ingest the seeds within the berries but knowing to never to bite down as that would release their poison. I recommend avoiding the seeds completely, working with small amounts of the juice in medicine only, if at all.
I am not affiliated with either of these herbalists but they’re both good sources online because, if you watch the videos you’ll see, they’ve worked with pokeweed medicinally for a very long time.
The difference between elderberries and pokeberries
Elderberries come from the elder trees. There are a variety of elder trees in North America but people are typically referring to sambucus nigra. Other elders are also great allies to work with for seasonal medicine. You’ve probably heard of elderberry syrup as its a common, well-loved remedy.
People occasionally mistake pokeberries for elderberries but the main visible difference is that elderberries grow in large clusters and pokeberries grow in vertical bunches. Both have magenta stems connecting berries to the rest of the plant. Pokeberries are usually darker but that can vary by variety so make sure you look for other clues.
Pokeweed has smooth leaves and elder typically has rough-edged leaves. If you see wood, it isn’t pokeweed. Even when the pokeweed plant gets 10ft high, the stems are magenta throughout unlike elder.
It may be hard to see but this image shows the clusters of ripe elderberries and how they differ from the vertically-growing pokeberry bunches. My kid and I have clearly had many talks about the difference between these two.
If in doubt, don’t make medicine or food from the plant you’ve harvested. Even better, don’t harvest plants you’re unsure about. Only work with plants you are 100% confident in properly identifying. I know this should be obvious but I see so much herbal misinformation online. This is not a green light to start plucking and playing with pokeweed, elder, or any other unfamiliar plant. Elderberries can also upset your stomach if you eat them raw.
Though there are legitimate paths for learning herbalism, note that there is no certification board in the United States. You can start with the American Herbalist’s Guild for finding a reputable course or an established herbalist for mentorship. To register, herbalists are tested on their knowledge and they have a vetting process. I am a member but not registered as an herbalist because I haven’t completed the required hours to be eligible. While there is so much knowledge one on the plant path acquires experientially, I recommend finding an established herbal program or mentor if you are serious about becoming an herbalist yourself.
Conclusion
Pokeweed’s leaves, berries, and roots have both medicine and varying degrees of toxicity. Avoid the seeds. Avoid the whole plant if you’re uncomfortable with the fact parts of it are deadly (wait until you hear about the cashew plant) but understand that there are very few verifiable cases of people dying from ingesting pokeweed and many generations of people who have survived because of this indigenous plants’ abundance in North America. More often than death, you’ll see cases of GI distress with varying severity. Articles I’ve found that posit it is the most common plant people have died from do not have verifiable sources to back up the claim. In Lisa’s video for making succus I linked, she mentions the only case I have found and could verify where someone thought pokeberries they’d foraged were a type of wild grape and they ingested parts of the seeds.
Never put pokeberries in a blender and risk breaking open the toxic seeds. This plant requires discernment but is not one to fear. Remind your children not to eat the berries as they contain those poisonous seeds but don’t worry if they’ve simply touched the plant. It is unlikely to irritate the skin, unless handling the root which is also to be avoided without guidance from a knowledgable herbalist.
Pokeweed, in my opinion, is worthy of reverence. While I empathize with people who are misinformed and trying to keep others safe, demonizing this indigenous plant who has fed many of our ancestors and helped them survive is not a generative way to do so. Most people, I suspect, simply haven’t developed a relationship with this plant or are afraid to do so because they’ve heard it is poisonous and a nuisance that should be eliminated. I hope this post serves as a starting point for your own research and, if you choose, the beginning of a relationship with this plant relative.
Note: This article is for education and to bring some nuance to online discussions about toxic plants. As I stated repeatedly in the text, this is not a green light for finding this plant and ingesting it. As I said, the many warnings online have a kernel of truth which is that working with this plant can lead to death in the hands of people without knowledge of appropriate handling. Please read carefully and move with caution when developing a new relationship with a plant. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
All photos are mine. Please do not use them, or any other part of this article without my explicit permission. You may link or cite it but get my permission to publish direct quotations otherwise as I may update it with new information as it becomes available.
