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Alicia Silverstone has sparked confusion among fans after she appeared to eat a “poisonous” fruit off the street.
The 47-year-old actor shared a video on TikTok on August 19 about her recent experience when walking on a street in England. “OK, I’ve discovered something that I can’t figure out what it is and I need your help,” she told her viewers.
She then held up what appeared to be an orange berry, which had seeds inside it. Silverstone also confessed that she tasted the apparent fruit herself.
“I just bit into it because it was on the street, and we were discussing whether it was a tomato or not,” she continued, before filming the gated garden where she got the fruit from.
Silverstone also questioned the type of leaves in the plant, which had green, red, and orange berries hanging off of it.
“So what the heck is this?” the Clueless star added, before showing the fruit opened up on the street, with seeds popping out of it.
She once again bit into the fruit and showed off the inside of it for the camera. “I don’t think you’re supposed to eat this,” she admitted. “But it’s almost like a pepper. Does anyone know what this is? I don’t know what it is.”
The actor emphasized her confusion in the caption, writing: “What the heck is this!? I’m in England and can’t figure it out.”
The TikTok video has quickly gone viral, with more than 1.3m views. In the comments, multiple people claimed that the fruit she was eating was a Jerusalem cherry, which is poisonous. Fans asked for an update on how she was doing after eating the apparent cherry.
“OMG NO!! Jerusalem Cherry, very poisonous in the Nightshade family. Hope you are ok,” one wrote.
“WOMAN! UPDATE US. ARE YOU ALIVE AND WELL!?!” another wrote, while a third commented: “Is Alicia ok??? We need an update!”
Other viewers not only questioned The Crush star for taking the fruit from a seemingly private garden, but also for eating something when she didn’t know what it was.
“Even if it was a tomato, it’s on someone’s private front garden, you can’t just reach through their gate and pick their plants,” one wrote.
“Who just picks something they don’t know what it is and eats it,” another commented.
A third responded: “Why would ANYONE eat random, unknown things from the street?!?”
The Independent has contacted representatives for Silverstone for comment.
According to the National Institute of Health’s MedlinePlus, the Jerusalem cherry “is a plant that belongs to the same family as the black nightshade.” The poisonous ingredient in the plant – which “has small, round, red and orange fruit” – is solanocapsine. The outcomes of this type of poisoning, which can be dangerous, “mostly affect the primarily gastrointestinal (often delayed eight to 10 hours), and central nervous system.”
The medical site notes that depending on treatment symptoms of the poisoning “most often get better within one to three days, but hospitalization may be necessary.” Death from eating the poisonous cherry is uncommon.
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