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Wikipedia does not mention the cherry tree incident in George Washington's biography, nor does it insist that Christopher Columbus sailed to prove the world was round, so it should not maintain other myths either. [[Special:Contributions/74.236.132.45|74.236.132.45]] ([[User talk:74.236.132.45|talk]]) 21:18, 4 May 2012 (UTC)
== Tomato leaves and stems not toxic to humans... ==
Does anyone have any proof whatsoever to reference that A) the tomato plant itself contains solanine and B) they are toxic to humans in any amount? In the first case, clicking on the Wikipedia article for solanine leads to the dispute that tomato plants even contain solanine, rather they contain only tomatine. In the second case, the only citation given for tomato leaves' toxicity in human appears to be a dead link. In any case, the toxicity example is still only one case, if it's even true.
Further, this very article links to the New York Times article about cooking with tomato leaves, which has a lot more information than simply "a small amount of leaves is probably not going to hurt you", as seems to be the implication. If the information is accurate, tomato leaves aren't going to be toxic to humans at all, no matter how much you eat, because the tomatine is bound with cholesterol in the gut and is not only passed through the digestive system, but takes the cholesterol with it, giving a health benefit as well. I've eaten tomato leaves, in fact I do regularly, and it does nothing. I realize that doesn't qualify as a verifiable reference, however it does lead me to be inclined to agree with the New York Times article, so there must me more out there on this.
I've looked it up as thoroughly as I can and have found nothing but old wives' tales about people "learning when they were growing up" not to eat the leaves, but NOTHING of scientific value. There's also at least one book, "Cooking in the Moment: A Year of Seasonal Recipes" by Andrea Reusing that has a recipe that calls for tomato leaves.
So, to make a long story short, this is a call to clean up the section talking about the seemingly non-existent toxicity of the leaves and stems (can't believe it's there in the first place, seeing as there is no source for it), and also a call for more references to the fact. There seems to be an abundance of myth, but I'll remind everyone that this is not the kind of thing that the section of an article here should be based on.[[Special:Contributions/184.167.224.119|184.167.224.119]] ([[User talk:184.167.224.119|talk]]) 22:31, 26 July 2012 (UTC)
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