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In the first episode of the season, the staff at the dystopian Thai resort warn the Ratliff family to avoid the poisonous fruit in the tree surrounding their pool, as it could kill them if ingested. By the final episode of ‘The White Lotus’ (spoiler alert), Timothy remembers the warning, and decides to mix the seeds of the fruit into a cocktail that he ends up serving to his entire family, even though he immediately regrets it and decides to end the suicide plan.
The reality is that this toxic fruit not only exists in fiction, but is the fruit of the pong pong tree, also known as the ‘suicide tree’. It can be found throughout Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands and northern Australia, and contains large toxic seeds known as ‘cerberin’, a very bitter-tasting poison or chemical that can be deadly in small doses.
Ingestion of the seeds causes a range of symptoms including vomiting, nausea, hyperkalaemia, thrombocytopenia (blood clotting problem) and electrocardiogram abnormalities.
In fact, its use goes back a long way. In some of the native regions mentioned, it is known to have been used in homicides and suicides. According to research, the plant is responsible for a significant number of deaths worldwide, although it is not well recognised in Western medicine. In one state in India alone, the plant caused 537 deaths between 1989 and 1999.
