American Mayapple

Toxic everywhere except the ripe fruit

The mayapple plant is poisonous in every part except the fully ripe yellow fruit. The leaves, stems, roots, and even unripe fruit contain podophyllotoxin — a compound powerful enough to be the source material for some chemotherapy drugs but capable of severe gastrointestinal poisoning if eaten.

When fully ripe (yellow, soft, falling from the plant), the fruit’s toxin levels drop to safe consumption — but timing the harvest is tricky.

A unique woodland plant

Mayapple grows in shaded eastern North American forests as colonies of single-stemmed plants topped with a large, deeply lobed umbrella-shaped leaf. Some plants produce a single white flower in May, and from that flower, a single fruit hidden beneath the leaf.

Walking through a mayapple colony in late summer, one can lift each “umbrella” to check for the rare ripe fruit beneath. Most fruits never ripen; many plants produce no fruit at all in a given year.

Native medicinal heritage and modern medicine

Indigenous peoples used mayapple for medicinal purposes — generally with great caution and in tiny doses — for skin conditions and as a strong purgative.

Modern oncology owes a debt to this plant: podophyllotoxin extracted from mayapple roots is the precursor for etoposide, an important chemotherapy drug used to treat lung cancer, lymphoma, and testicular cancer. The plant continues to be cultivated for pharmaceutical extraction.