Yup, The White Lotus ‘Suicide Tree’ Fruit Is Real – And It’s Horrific

Fans of The White Lotus who’ve seen season three, episode seven may be left with lots of questions – “What the Hell is a suicide fruit?” perhaps chief among them.

The strange produce featured in the season finale contains what are sometimes called “Chekhov’s fruit”, or poisonous seeds.

And yes, it’s completely real; the fruit comes from the cerbera odollam, pong-pong, or “suicide” tree.

It has claimed “thousands” of lives before, National Geographic explains.

But what is the “suicide fruit,” and how does it kill?

The heart-stopping cardiac glycosides in the plant are most concentrated in its seeds.

They can lead to hyperkalemia, heart block, and other major cardiac events leading to death.

Science Direct shared that the seed “is frequently used for suicidal ingestion” in Southeast Asia (this season of The White Lotus is filmed in Thailand, one country in which the pong-pong tree grows).

Poisoning outside of the countries in which the tree grows is rare, Science Direct adds.

The bitter-tasting fruit, whose foul flavour is meant to repel animals from eating it, has been used as punishment in “witch trials.”

“A person suspected of spiritual subversion, and sometimes even of theft or other mundane offences, had to drink a solution of tangena shavings in water, followed by pieces of chicken-skin” in the 1800s, a 2002 paper reads.

Vomiting (one of the early signs of pong-pong seed poisoning) the chicken skin would prove your innocence; failing to do so would be used as evidence of guilt (if the person tested did not die, of course).

“It’s not a desirable way to go,” professor of chemistry Owen McDougal told National Geographic.

A 2018 paper found that in a ten-year period (1988-89), 537 people were recorded as dying from consumption of the fruit’s seeds.

A New Scientist article suggested that the seed is often used in murder cases because so few toxicologists test for it.

“Half of Kerala’s plant poisoning deaths, and one in 10 of all fatal poisonings” are down to the deadly seed, they add, though experts say the figures could be double that when you consider potential undetected cases.