Most Delicious Poison: From Spices to Vices – The Story of Nature’s Toxins

A deadly secret lurks within our kitchens, medicine cabinets and gardens.


Scratch beneath the surface of a coffee bean, a red pepper flake or an apple seed, and we find a bevy of strange chemicals. We use these to greet our days (caffeine), titillate our tongues (capsaicin) and even kill our enemies (cyanide). But what is the reason plants and fungi produce such chemicals? And how did we come to use and abuse them?


Based on cutting-edge science in the fields of evolution, chemistry, and neuroscience, Most Delicious Poison is the first book to reveal the origins of plant and fungal toxins, the mechanisms animals have evolved to overcome them, and how a co-evolutionary arms race made its way into the human experience. This perpetual chemical war not only drove the diversification of life on Earth, but is also intimately tied to our own successes and failures as a species.

Format: Hardback
Pages: 304
Imprint: Oneworld
Publication date: 30/01/2024