Raw tomatoes can cause death when eaten raw because they contain the highly toxic substance lobeline?

 Refutation:

Tomatoes, which belong to the Solanaceae family (genus solanum), and the potatoes and eggplants we normally see belong to the Solanaceae family. Solanine, or solanine (chemical formula C45H73NO15, named because it was first found in lobelia), is commonly produced by plants in the Solanaceae family. Lobeline is toxic to insects and animals, and is a glycoalkaloids produced by the plant's own defense.

The mechanism of toxicity of lobeline is mainly through the inhibition of cholinesterase activity and causes toxic reactions in humans, and the main manifestations of poisoning are gastrointestinal and nervous system disorders. A study has shown that an intake of 2-5 mg/kg of lobeline in humans can cause toxic symptoms, while an intake of 3-6 mg/kg can be fatal. Symptoms usually appear 8 to 12 hours after ingestion, and may occur as soon as 10 minutes after eating foods high in lobeline.

Tomatoes also contain some amount of glycoside alkaloids, but this alkaloid is not lobeline, but tomatine (chemical formula C50H83NO21). It is clear that this rumor makes a mistake in the first place. Lycopene is more abundant in green tomatoes than in mature tomatoes, and tomato leaves are the part of the tomato plant that contains the highest amount of lycopene. But we don't normally eat green tomatoes, much less tomato leaves, and there is no such thing as food poisoning that follows.

Second, lycopene is less toxic than lobeline. Experiments have shown that the safe dose of lycopene for consumption is about 2 mg per kg of body weight. In other words, an adult weighing 50 kg would have to eat more than 100 mg (0.1 g) of lycopene to be at risk for poisoning.

0.1 grams may seem very small, but if we consider the amount of lycopene in tomatoes, we find it difficult to have the possibility of poisoning after eating raw tomatoes. In order to study the activity of lycopene, our researchers weighed 30 kg of green tomatoes and pulped them, using anhydrous ethanol as the feed solution, and obtained crude lycopene by ultrasonic extraction, chloroform extraction, resin adsorption, distilled water elution, 95% ethanol elution, and finally precise weighing of about 1.093 g. This means that at least 3 kg of raw tomatoes must be eaten at one time to have the possibility of poisoning. In addition, it has been documented that it takes about one pound of tomato leaves (about 0.45 kg) to produce lycopene that induces toxicity in adults. Therefore, under normal circumstances, eating one or two unripe green tomatoes is not toxic.

However, when humans eat green tomatoes raw in large doses and consume fairly high doses of lycopene, they do have the potential to produce gastrointestinal problems and even damage to the liver and heart. As tomatoes ripen, the amount of lycopene in tomatoes becomes lower and lower, so there is basically no possibility of lycopene poisoning when eating raw, ripe red tomatoes.

In summary, the amount of lycopene in tomatoes is negligible, and relatively high levels of lycopene, which is a glycoside alkaloid along with lycopene, are present. However, both green tomatoes, which are relatively rich in lycopene, and ripe red tomatoes, which are very low in lycopene, do not contain enough to cause damage to humans when consumed normally. The consumption of large amounts of unripe green tomatoes may cause gastrointestinal problems such as diarrhea and should be avoided.