A group of friends learned they'd accidentally put themselves in serious danger by sniffing a flower that turned out to be severely poisonous.
There's a whole world of plants out there that are pretty to look at, but you shouldn't always judge a book by its cover.
Musician and TikTok creator SongsByRalph became well aware of this after picking up a pretty and innocent-looking flower, while hanging out with her best friend, only to be left feeling 'f**ked up' after inhaling its nice scent.
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Ralph shared the details of the incident in a post on TikTok, where she explained that she and her friend found the 'beautiful flower' before heading to a birthday party.
"[We] spent the night inhaling its smell," Ralph wrote in the video, alongside a video of her strutting towards the camera with the flower stuck right up to her nose.
However, things soon took a turn.
"When we arrived at our friend's birthday, we both suddenly felt so f*cked up and had to leave," she continued, adding a series of skull and crossbones emojis alongside her caption.
"When I got home and fell asleep, I had the craziest dreams and experienced sleep paralysis for the first time in my life," Ralph continued.
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"Turns out the flower is super poisonous and we accidentally drugged ourselves like idiots."
Ralph then cut to a screenshot of a Google search, which revealed the flower she'd been sniffing was an 'Angel Trumpet'.
The flower has the scientific name 'genus Brugmansia', and according to Brittanica, 'all parts of angel’s trumpets are considered poisonous'.
"Ingestion of the plants can cause disturbing hallucinations, paralysis, tachycardia, and memory loss and can be fatal," the site says.
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Species of the plants have previously been used as 'herbal medicine', but when broken down it can produce scopolamine, which is sometimes referred to as 'devil's breath'.
The powder can disorient and incapacitate users and lead to frightening hallucinations. In large doses, it can cause respiratory failure and death.
Devil's breath is referred to by UK Addiction Treatment Centers as 'the world’s scariest drug' as it can be a 'discreet tool for malevolent purposes, particularly as it can erase memory, make users highly impressionable and even paralyse them physically', the site explains.
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Scopolamine is reported to have been used in some crimes, administered in liquid or powder form in foods and beverages.
Thankfully Ralph and her friend seemed to avoid the worst of the effects of the flower, but hopefully they'll think twice before getting so close to a mystery plant again!
Emily Brown