26 April 2009

I have eaten seeds..

..and have passed days in mild terror that any day I could sprout a creeper through my ears. How this idea was planted in my head I am slightly hazy; it could have been an exasperated grandparent or a righteous, god-fearing, finger-wagging child of our neighbours, or well, my mother even, just for laughs; but most certainly watermelon seeds have slid in with the sweet red juice down the throat during the summer holidays. I am sure pomegranate seeds have. In the days of seed-ful grapes and oranges, those too have immigrated successfully. As I grew I up, I took much trouble to reassure myself - it could not possibly happen. The seed would be disposed of sensibly by the body, I have told myself.

Now several years later, I come across this in the Guardian.

16 Apr 2009:

Ian Sample: Medics in the Urals have removed a tiny tree from a man's lung after he complained of chest pains

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Well, one can eat any seeds, but remember to aspirate (into the lungs) if you ever have to be successful in this mission. Otherwise the seeds get ingested, digested and the fibre remnants expelled as faeces.
And the lungs in view of its paO2 gradient are known to sustain variety of species e.g.Fungus...aspergillosis etc.
So the bottom line is ' do aspirate with a bit of Hcl(present in the gastric juice to create a granulomatous bed for the seed to germinate)' if you must grow plants in your body.
Just talking science!
Ranjila, alumnus-St.Josephs AIGHS, Calicut.

Gitanjali said...

Really, Ranjila - are you the same Ranjila from school? How nice to see you here!

Jai Prakash said...

birds of the same feather flock together !