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Science 5 May 1972:
Vol. 176. no. 4034, pp. 512 - 514
DOI: 10.1126/science.176.4034.512
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Articles

Toxic Substances in Plants and the Food Habits of Early Man

A. Carl Leopold 1 and Robert Ardrey 2

1 Horticulture Department, Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana 47907
2 Via Garibaldi 89, Trastevere, Rome, Italy

The widespread occurrence of toxic substances in plants must have greatly restricted their usefulness as food for primitive man. The development of cooking of plant products is suggested to have been a major evolutionary advance, making a major increase in the vegetable materials palatable to man; this technical advantage apparently occurred only in the most recent 2 percent of the anthropological record.


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)