Alert · official source
Food Safety Alert: Do Not Eat Toxic Horse Chestnuts Found in Parks
· Reviewed by the editor
South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has issued a warning cautioning the public against foraging wild brown nuts in parks and city streets. Seeds from Japanese horse chestnut trees (marronnier) look nearly identical to sweet chestnuts but contain toxic aesculin, which causes severe abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting if ingested. Authorities noted that horse chestnuts feature sparse, blunt spines on their outer husks, unlike edible sweet chestnuts which have dense, needle-thin burrs.
So what
Never pick and eat wild chestnuts fallen along Korean city sidewalks or botanical grounds, as common landscaping trees bear toxic lookalikes.
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