Are the seeds from bay trees poisonous

On the 5th of February 2016 Viktoria Vukics left me a comment/question in the original bay leaf post from September 7th, 2010:

"Hello there! Thanks for this interesting article. Its so good that someone has cleared up this pseudo-myth on a scientific basis. Theres so often confusion about the uses and safety of herbs. I also heard the bay seeds to be poisonous. Do you think its true? One even sais that its unsafe to crush or press the berries to obtain the fixed oil. I would appreciate your opinion on the matter, Victoria"

I am quite busy these days; it took me a while to be able to find reliable documentation supporting an answer. Here is what I could find with some solid scientific basis.

The bay tree contains small fragrant black (when ripen) shiny olive-like berries of about 1.3 cm long. These are apparently edible as there are anecdotal reports that birds actually love them. Even though historically the berries have been used mainly for medicinal purposes, a lot of the information available on the web regarding how edible or toxic these berries are, comes from popular knowledge. But two very good articles point towards their safety.

The berries of Bay Laurel contain among other essential oils, eugenol, acetyl eugenol, methyl eugenol, terpineol, cineol, geraniol and 1-8-cineole [1] [3]. These are responsible for the attractive spicy aroma in them. Some people report that infusion containing such berries relieve flatulence and can soothe gastric problems. I personally could not find any scientific suggestions on the flatulence part. However, these berries are quite substantially used in the food industry as seasoning and coloring agents for soups, meat, fish, beverages, etc, and even as food preservatives due to their proven antimicrobial potency (capable of inactivating for instance E. coli, S. typhimurium and S. aureus [3]) and also showing some potential as insecticide [2].  

In conclusion, the Laurus nobilis berries are a good natural source of anthocyanins; these are non-toxic water-soluble vacuolar pigments that change color depending on pH, and have antioxidant properties. 

With my online research I could not find any documents reporting toxicity associated to the fruits/berries of the Bay laurel tree/plant. If any of you find literature on the toxic/poisonous potential of the L. nobilis berries, please share with us.

[1] Laurus Nobilis, Floridata Plant Encyclopaedia, [http://www.floridata.com/Plants/Lauraceae/Laurus%20nobilis/733], last visited on the 29th of February 2016, last updated on the 24th of February 2005.

[2] Longo, L and Vasapollo, G. (2005). "Anthocyanins from Bay (Laurus nobilis L.) Berries". Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 53, pp. 8063-8067. 

[3] Dadalioglu, I. and Evrendilek, G. A. (2004). "Chemical compositions and antibacterial effects of essential oils of Turkish oregano (Origanum minutiflorum), Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis), Spanish Lavender (Lavandula stoechas L.), and Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) on common  foodborne pathogens". Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 52, pp. 8255-8260.

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Blackwell System

Blackwell System

Today I introduce the Blackwell System. The owner Alex Blackwell, is a good buddy of mine. His system is awesome. It can be reproduced all over because it uses universal parts. It is in his basement so he needs supplemental lighting. He is using an eight bulb, T5 fluorescent light. It has two settings to choose between flowering and vegetative stages. The grow beds are two heavy duty plastic totes bought at Walmart. The whole system is nested in a stainless steal utility shelf. The bottom  portion is filled with a 75 gallon aquarium. The whole system has a 2 x 4 footprint, so it is very space efficient. 

Lights on! The plants are loving their aquaponic home.

The system is growing peppers, green and purple basil, mixed greens, and two types of melons! The melons were just planted so they are only sprouts at this point, but the rest is going amazingly! We have harvested the mixed greens three times in the past 16 days! And the next harvest is not far away. 

Peppers started flowering not too long ago.

Delicious mixed greens. It grows about as fast as we can eat it!
Everyone here loves here "fish poop salad!"

The nutrient machines that power this awesome system are just as beautiful as the greens they produce. I never knew tilapia were such colorful fish until I saw these! They have doubled their length and more than tripled their weight (all estimates at the moment) in  the two months or so Alex has had them. They are super lively and have personalities I did not expect.

Cool colors that I did not expect from tilapia.
Leave it to aquaponics to teach me even more!

This system is a perfect example for someone who wants to set up an aquaponics anywhere in their home or business. It has easy to find materials and simple mechanics. The Blackwell System has lots of cool odds and ends that work awesomely. I will highlight these in upcoming posts.

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Commercial Backyard Aquaponic System Wolf Pack Aquaponics

Wolf Pack Aquaponics

When people get into aquaponics, they usually get the idea of setting up a big system in their backyard. While there are plenty of factors that halt their idea, cold climates, lack of funds, a nagging wife/ girlfriend who does not want an ugly system in their yard, etc. But nothing stopped the Wolf Pack Aquaponic crew from setting up their backyard system. 

The tour started off with the water collection system that can collect over 300 gallons every time it rains one inch! The tour continued to the back side where there was eight or so 300 gal IBCs with half 275 gal grow beds on top. There is currently only a lonely blue gill swimming around, but once summer comes again they will be filled with home grown tilapia. Each grow bed fills and drains via an auto-siphon into the fish tanks below. Each IBC is connected with each other with a four inch PVC pipe so the fish can swim from one container to another. 

Inside the Wolf Pack Aquaponic greenhouse.

Inside the greenhouse there are IBCs on each side, but you barley notice them as IBCs. They are tastefully covered and look great! There are lots of plants growing but most have been harvested for the winter. One cool thing is the whole system is run off of one hot tub heater. This includes all the IBCs outside too! The pump doubles as a heater too, keeping the water temp suitable for tilapia. The pump does have a draw back, the cost of running it. It costs about $2-$3 a day just to run the heater pump. Although it does not sound that high, consider the pump is running 24/7, 365 days a year. That is $730 to $1,095 a year just to run the heater pump. Plus you need to factor in the cost to run the air compressor that provided air to each and every fish tank and DWC grow bed. 

These are the floating raft beds (DWC).
This is where they start seedlings for transplant.

The fish tanks that lead to the floating rafts are filtered with a swirl filter. A swirl filter skims clean water off the top of the container while the heavy solids "swirl" to the bottom, also called a vortex filter. All of the solid fish waste that is collected is used as fertilizer for the "traditonal" garden outside. The plants love it! There were more tomatoes then they could eat, and pole bean galore! 

While the system is just feeding the Wolf Pack family for right now, they have plans to expand and have different offers that they are entertaining. There is lots and lots of work that went into making this system as well. The knowledge is being kept and collected to share with the public in the future. A "this works and this doesnt" manuel for aquaponics. 

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Our Temporary Replacements are Here!

Mark and Tianna Owens from the Boise Vineyard arrived a week ago to help Julie and I out as we head back to Vancouver, Washington to welcome a new grand child into the world. The Owens are from Boise, Idaho and are part of the Boise Vineyard church. We came to know them through Boise Vineyards I-61 program which has a missions center in Managua, Nicaragua. Nica Impact is a partner NGO with I-61 as we are one of their training stops for the teams that come for training. (See I-61.org for more information on that ministry)

Mark and Tianna were looking for a short term mission opportunity that was a stretch for them yet didnt require that they sell all their worldly possessions to go serve in a foreign country for eternity. We are glad to have them as their presence will help provide some stability to Nica Impact while we are away. Their main responsibility is to manage the money flow and to help us set up a weekly Skype conference call with our Nica staff. Once that is done each week, they will have to implement beach ministry protocol at our Tupilapa beach house. This is an important component of a newcomers training, to enjoy time watching the ocean, reading books, and spending time in prayer and meditation while enjoying Gods creation. A daily walk on the beach completes the therapy.

Please pray for the Owens time in Nicaragua and for Julie and I as we travel back to our hometown.

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The stuff they say about Ebola Are we all gonna die Part 3 of 3

Finally we reach an end, but not for the probable (yet pleading for statistical proof) outbreak. The world went bananas with Ebola for a while, the news made it the red hot topic alongside the Islamic State. Ebola is here to stay, not only in the affected regions, but also in the different communication vias spread through a globalised world of words, images and sounds. A lot has been done and said, overall the organisations acted late but still in time to correct a lazy initial approach. Procedures were inadequate and knowledge outside the Ebola niches was deficient, but now it seems that things are progressing much better, with one or two cases of PLAIN stupidity surging here and there. 

There arent reasons for panicking, so if you want to panic, go panic over FLU or NOROVIRUS since Winter is coming. Obviously, if the proper measures arent taken, one will have to be worried sick because sick will be a common word. 

The literature on Ebola, as a consequence of the investment on research, is now readily available if it wasnt already. People just didnt really care. The depth of knowledge is definitely increasing as researchers and lab personnel are now more aware of the correct way to process Ebola samples, for example.

I was personally badly impressed with the lack of altruism, empathy and philanthropy from ignorant people, who not only are damn ignorant but they are also very selfish. I remember reading somewhere comments from very few Illuminati Americans who dont represent the norm, Thank God, asking for policies against those who were helping Ebola patients in Africa. Comments like "... they knew what they were going for... now dont let them in because they will infect us". Wow, that is really nice and recommendable to portrait such disregard for the human kind and such disbelief in your own countrys health authorities. I am glad that representatives like President Obama had the guts to say that he did not fear meeting them face-to-face and shake their hands.

There is still a long way to go if the world wishes to reduce the exposure risk to this or other uncommon viruses. Nevertheless, the answer to the question "Are we all gonna die" is blatantly clear, YES. YES WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE. Most of all we are going to die because of the very same top 10 causes of death that have been tackling us til 2012:

[1]

And figures will be pretty much the same as predictions up to 2030 do not include EBOLA. What we can say is that, regardless of what you do, if you panic or not, if you get proper information or not, you and I are going to die, but its very unlikely that Ebola will be our grim ripper. 

Im glad I was of help to all my readers. You know you make this blog a better place whenever you visit it. But I have to move on, there will be plenty of people writing plenty of stuff about Ebola. I for one need to move on to other "big man tings now", this aint cool anymore. But I promise to be alert.

[1] WHO, The top 10 causes of death, [http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs310/en/], last visited on the 29th of October 2014, last uopdated on May 2014.

1st image taken from The keep-calm-o-matic, [http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-calm-or-not-we-are-all-going-to-die/].

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Raising Baby Tilapia Aquaponicly

Tilapia Fry

The Blackwell System recently had babies (fry)! There have been a few mothers holding eggs, but we never stripped them in time. This time was different, we were ready! 

We were trying an experiment with two mothers at the same time. Alex bought a small terrarium with a screen lid which was submersed into the large aquarium to make a small holding tank. With the two mothers holding eggs, we corralled one of the mothers into the holding tank. Our reasoning; the mother would spit the babies out and then we would release the mother back into the tank and keep the babies in the holding tank. The second mother fish would act as a control, to see how the babies survive (or dont) being spit into the tank directly. 

Things did not go as planned. On the third day, we went to check on the mother in the holding tank first thing in the morning. The mother was in there (where else would she go?), but she was definitely was not holding eggs any more and there was none in the tank. She ate them.

The control mother was still holding her eggs though. We had watched a movie on YouTube about stripping mother tilapia of their eggs the day before, and have decided to try and strip the control mother as we were tired of loosing babies. 

So we set up a bucket we could strip the mother in (that sound dirty!) and caught her in the net. While we where trying to get a good grip on her, she started spitting the eggs out! So we quickly got her in place and got all the eggs out. There were close to forty eggs and newly hatched eggs swimming and sitting in the bowl! It worked! 

We got a turkey baster and transported the eggs and newborns into a plastic vial. We strapped a fiberglass window screen on top so they cannot swim out and placed that under the grow bed drain. And there it hangs!

Water returning from the grow beds flows into the tube and replaces the water.
There are about 30 tilapia fry in the tube.

The fry are growing every day. After the eggs yolk sacks were gone, we have fed them crushed fish food. A good way to tell if fish are healthy is the food test. Fish that eat and have no physical symptoms are usually doing alright.

After they start to crowd this tube, which should not take long, the plan is to move them to the holding tank originally designed to house the holding mothers. The holding tank used to be resting on the bottom of the aquarium but too much fish poop was falling in it. It is now hanging kinda like the hatching tube but is semi-submersed.

Holding tank originally used to house tilapia mothers holding eggs.
When the fry are big enough they will be transferred to this tank.

Being able to strip the mother and raise our own babies has allowed us to close the loop in our system that can now be perpetual and not reliant on buying new tilapia after these ones... Well after these current fish make a tasty meal!

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There are three types of Westerns

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The stuff they say about Ebola Are we all gonna die Part 1 of 3

A lot has been spat throughout the different media channels of communication, bottom line is that personally I believe contingency plans are failing. Why? I dont want to start a conspiracy theory here, but when having to deal with such ailment governments and health authorities can not plead ignorance; what I saw was the dragging of  decision-making procedures and poorly conducted protocols. I saw loads of action in allowing pharma companies to use untested drugs, something so unprecedented that takes me back to what was generated by the avian and swine flues propaganda some years back. I dont want to say these poor approaches were to serve the intents of Big Pharma, that is just not the case; it is better to assume that health authorities like WHO and governments of well developed countries just didnt really think this would spread so quickly. In a word, leniency. It was in Africa last month so what the hell should we worry about - they thought! I am not convinced of an outbreak per se, numbers prove it, unless you bend the definition of outbreak, but then Influenza should gather a lot more attention. Anyway, there are a lot of loop-holes in all of the things said and done in the media; some by ignorant people and some by very informed/qualified individuals. I will contribute my way with what I read and was written by scientists with proper opinions. Opinions I personally consider of value, for an example of a good conversation access here. Here it is for you, my answer to the question inside all our heads. 

Are we all gonna die? 

The answer can be found in Part 3

How Ebola disables initial immune responses?

"Researchers report that they have discovered a mechanism unique to the Ebola virus that defeats attempts by interferon to block viral reproduction in infected cells. They say their study [find here] explains for the first time how the production by the virus of a protein called Ebola Viral Protein 24 (eVP24) stops the interferon-based signals from ramping up immune defenses. With the bodys first response disabled, the virus is free to mass produce itself and trigger the too large immune response that damages organs and often becomes deadly as part of the Ebola virus disease (EVD)."

Taken from GEN News Highlights

Ebola Outbreak Underestimated

"During a recent press conference, Joanne Liu, international president of Doctors Without Borders, guessed it would take officials around six months to contain the outbreak, Reuters reported.

In an email to ScienceInsider, the WHO said it is considering administering the blood of people whove survived Ebola infection nto those who fall ill to the virus. Convalescent serum is high on our list of potential therapies and has been used in other outbreaks, the organisation told Science.

Still, when treating Ebola-infected patients, there is not a lot of extra time to experiment with unproven therapies, wrote Armad Sprecher, an epidemiologist and public health specialist at Doctors Without Borders, in New Republic. We cannot subject our patients to all of the possible things that might work. We have to chose wisely".

Taken from Pharmaceutical Microbiology

Ebola Researchers to test vaccine on humans, sequence virusgenomes

"The National Institute of Allergy and Infectios Diseases will test a potential Ebola Virus vaccine [find here] on humans starting next week.

"The vaccine, developed by the NIAID and GlaxoSmithKline... Today we know the best way to prevent the spread of Ebola infection is through public health measures, including good infection control practices, isolation, contact tracing, quarantine, and provision of personal protective equipment, NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci said in a press release. However, a vaccine will ultimately be an important tool in the prevention effort. "The launch of Phase 1 Ebola vaccine studies is the first step in a long process.

Researchers from the Broad Institute and Harvard University have teamed up to take on the task, in hopes of putting and end to the outbreak. Collecting 99 virus genomes from Sierra Leone patients, the researchers found more than 300 genetic distinctionsthat separate this epidemic from previous outbreaks.

The team used the deep sequencing [find here] technique to inspect each genome at an average of 2,000 times."

Taken from Genome

Image obtained from News Channel 3, [http://wtkr.com/2014/08/11/report-ebola-outbreak-likely-started-by-2-year-old-in-guinea/]

To be continued

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The stuff they say about Ebola Are we all gonna die Part 2 of 3

I am almost done with this topic that has been all over the news fro quite a while, unfortunately! Some of them channels broadcast an intense graphical set of images; images some minds would consider unnecessary violent and unnecessary awareness. I just watched a woman that had perished on a piece of carton paper being taken by two members of staff from some health department in Sierra Leone, as they were preparing themselves to drag the body away. In the eyes of the deceased womans family members, I saw apathy. Not the kind of apathy that resembles disrespect, distance, detachment, but the sort of apathy stamped by the "What can I do?"-attitude.

The question to "Are we all gonna die" is still answered, but I know the answer already. Ill save it for part three, the final part of this rambling through the Ebola pastures. I hope you stick around for yet another perspective I managed to extract from a series of articles written by people who know well what they are talking about.

"The Mathematics of Ebola trigger stark warnings: Act now or regret it"

"... a piece published last week in the Journal Eurosurveillance, which is the peer-reviewed publication of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (the EUs Stockholm-based version of the US CDC). The piece is an attempt to assess mathematically how the epidemic is growing, by using case reports to determine the reproductive number. (Note for non-epidemiology geeks: The basic reproductive number - usually shorted to Ro or R-nought - expresses how many cases of disease are likely to be caused by any one infected person. An Ro of less than 1 means an outbreak will die out; an Ro of more than 1 means an outbreak can be expected to increase. If you saw the movie Contagion, this is what Kate Winslet stood up and wrote on a whiteboard early in the film)."

"In a worst-case hypothetical scenario, should the outbreak continue with recent trends, the case burden could gain an additional 77,181 to 277,124 cases by the end of 2014."

"The level of response to the Ebola outbreak is totally inadequate. At the CDC, we learned that a military-style response during a major health crisis saves lives... We need to establish large field hospitals staffed by Americans to treat the sick. We need to implement infection-control practices to save the lives of health-care providers. We need to staff burial teams to curb disease transmission at funerals. We need to implement systems to detect new flare-ups that can be quickly extinguished. A few thousand U.S. troops could provide the support that is so desperately needed."

"There are two possible future chapters to this story that should keep us up at night:

The first possibility is that the Ebola virus spreads from West Africa to megacities in other regions of the developing world. This outbreak is very different from the 19 that have occurred in Africa over the past 40 years. It is much easier to control Ebola infections in isolated villages. But there has been a 300 percent increase in Africas population over the last four decades, much of it in large city slums...

The second possibility is one that virologists are loath to discuss openly bur are definitely considering in private: that an Ebola virus could mutate to become transmissible trough the air... viruses like Ebola are notoriously sloppy in replicating, meaning the virus entering one person may be genetically different from the virus entering the next. The current Ebola viruss hyper-evolution is unprecedented; there has been more human-to-human transmission in the past four months than most likely occurred in the last 500 to 1,000 years. Each new infection represents trillions of throws of the genetic dice."

Taken from Superbug by Maryn McKenna

Image taken from Wired, [http://www.wired.com/2011/09/contagion-questions-spoilers/all/].

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