Plant Variety
Some plant varieties contain more natural toxins than other plant varieties within the same species of plant. If plant breeders select for insect resistance in a crop plant, they may also be selecting for a plant that produces higher levels of natural toxins.
For example, in 1969 a Canadian farmer became severely ill after eating a variety of Lenape potato. The breeders who developed that variety did not know they had inadvertently produced a potato with dangerously high levels of glycoalkaloids.
Prepared Summer 1997 by Bernadene Magnuson, Ph.D.
University of Idaho, Dept. of Food Science and Toxicology - EXTOXNET FAQ Team.