If you’ve come to this page because you ate Mayapple seeds & are worried, here’s my short answer:

I’ve swallowed about 6 or 7 seeds and been totally fine. I know people who have eaten the seeds for years without ever thinking about the toxicity and had no noticeable effects, at least short term. I am a large man (6’3”, 190lbs) in good overall health so there’s that. As I sat in a parking lot dreadfully trying to make myself vomit, I couldn’t help but think in the back of my mind I may be overreacting.

The friend I was with called a mutual herbalist friend who recommended to induce vomiting, drink water and vomit again, then keep check on my pupils for dilation. The toxins in mayapple damage the central nervous system. As my worry increased, I tried vomiting and couldn’t do it. I called a few experienced foraging friends who didn’t answer before thinking to call one last person, who has foraged in this region for many decades. I calmly told him I had eaten a few mayapple seeds and wondered if he had experience with them. He responded, “Oh, you’re not supposed to eat those? I always eat the seeds and even chew them up. They’re poisonous?”. His casual response was a big breath of relief for me. It was exactly what I needed to relax - someone who had eaten the seeds with no ill effects.

I told him about the apparent toxicity and he said he may be more diligent about removing the seeds in lieu of potential long term issues. But for the short term, it seems eating a moderate amount of seed shouldn’t worry you. This a small data set of anecdotes obviously so don’t apply this across the board, be mindful of your own experience. But the point is, I blew something up in my head to be much more intense than it needed to be based on fear and lack of solid information. I write this simply as another perspective to add.

So there’s the short answer and here’s why I write this: after ingesting a few seeds without thinking about the toxicity aspect, I went on to the internet to see if I had just poisoned myself once the after thought of “maybe I should have spit out the seeds” kicked in. I found very little information and one story of a guy who ate some seeds, got worried then called Steve Brill, was told “no one eats the seeds” then proceeded to induce vomiting to rid himself of the “toxic seeds”. I was more at risk from the fright of reading this account along with some short scientific papers alleging all parts of the plant (seeds included) to be “very toxic” aside from the very ripe fruit parts.