Medical Sciences Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for professionals in medical and allied health fields, students of those professions, related academics, and others with a sound understanding of medicine and healthcare-related sciences. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
There is an article about how to make avocado leaves tea for kidney cleansing.
However, on Wikipedia's page regarding avocado, states that "avocado leaves are documented to be harmful to animals."
Does this imply avocado tea would be harmful to humans?
If not, are there any health benefits of avocado tea?
That wikipedia page seems to blame the toxicity of some avacado parts to their content of persin. According to the page on persin:
Persin is a fungicidal toxin present in the avocado. It is generally harmless to humans, but when consumed by domestic animals in large quantities it is dangerous.
Even in the case of animals, wikipedia suggests that it is the Guatemalan variety which is responsible for the reports of poisoning, not the Mexican variety. This is corroborated by an article which explains that the concern over the toxicity of avacado leaves originated with a 1984 study at the University of California at Davis. This study found that the consumption of very large amounts of avacado leaves was toxic to goats. However, an author of the atudy (Dr. Arthur Craigmill) clarified that the leaves in question were those of the Guatemalan avacado (Persea american), and that the toxic effects were not observed when goats were fed Mexican avacado leaves (Persea dryminfolia).
