Cannibals Tomato (Solanum viride).

Cannibals Tomato - Solanum viride

Solanum viride ( S. uporo, S. anthropophagorum)  belongs to t he family of the Solanaceae, the nightshades. It is an erect (but sometimes subscandent or sprawling) shrub growing 1-3 metres tall. A form that has arisen out of cultivation (cv. 'Anthropophagorum') is sometimes grown for its edible leaves and fruits. It is native to Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, the Tuamotus and as far west as Hawai. It is also known as cannibal tomato or poro poro. This ghoulish nickname is due to the fact that one says that human meat gets better digested when one eats a sauce made of S. uporo with the meat. 

S. uporo is an herbaceous, perennial plant that reaches a height form 1 to 1, 5 m. The flowers are white, the corolla has 5 petals and the stamens are brightly yellow. The flowers stand in inflorescences of up to 5 flowers. They resemble the flowers of the potato and other Solanaceae. The fruits look just like the common tomato and are cooked just like that. Eaten raw they have a very bitter taste. The fruits get 2 cm in diameter. The seeds lie in the pulp.

The first collections of the species were created during the second research trip of James Cooks to New Zealand and into the South Pacific (1772-1775) by Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Georg Forster. Since the name published in Georg Forster's dissertation De plantis esculentis insularum Oceaniae 1786 is not validly published, the regular first description by the German botanist and physician Kurt Sprengel 1807 comes under the name given by the Forsters on the Herbarbelegen name Solanum viride.

Later, the plant was described several times under another name, so in 1852 by the French botanist Michel Félix Dunal under the name Solanum uporo, under which the plant is still often found today.

 However, she received the name "Cannibals Tomato" in 1864 from Berthold Seemann, which is also reflected in the scientific name Solanum anthropophagorum. He reported that he had learned from the inhabitants of Fiji, who at that time were allegedly still occasionally "cannibalistic", that human flesh was difficult to digest, but that it became more digestible when prepared with three different plant species. These species are on the one hand, the Cannibals Tomato, on the other hand, the leaves of Malawari (Trophis anthropophagorum) and Tudano (Homalanthus pedicellatus). While Malawari and Tudano are wild-growing trees, the Cannibals Tomato was cultivated, often near the huts called bure-ni-sa (stranger's house), where those killed in the war were brought. According to Seaman, there was a superstition among the indigenous population that touching children with hands that had previously touched human flesh causes disease. That's why the meat was only touched with long wooden forks.

Originally they wrapped the meat of slain enemies in the leaves and roasted on stones in the fire, later they used the big pots they traded with the Beche-de-mer fishers to first cook the man meat. They then served it with the greens and cooked fruit of the plant, basically like a tomato pasta sauce.

Nowdays, there is no evidence that the wild form of this plant is used for food, but a form with larger leaves and fruits (cv. 'Anthropophagorum') is traditionally cultivated in and near villages as a food crop.

The fruits ares edible when cooked. They resemble tomatoes, and are used for making sauces. Leaves and young stems are edible too - cooked as a potherb.

The roots of S. uporo are poisonous. They include steroid alkaloids.

Source:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menschenfressertomate
https://www.asklepios-seeds.de/gb/solanum-uporo-seeds.html
http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Solanum+viride