The Green Nightshade or Poro Poro is called ” man-eater tomato” in German. It received this name in 1864 from Berthold Seemann, who gave it the botanical name Solanum anthropophagorum. At his time, there were allegedly still cannibalistic inhabitants of Fiji who claimed that human meat would be more digestible if it was prepared with this man-eater tomato (and the leaves of two tree species). No recipe seems to have been handed down.

The fruits are firm with leathery skin, so they do not resemble tomatoes, but rather aubergines. They taste unpleasantly bitter. The bitterness diminishes with cooking. Green Nightshade can, for example, give stews a bitter taste if that is desired. The leaves can be eaten as a salad.

• Edible Fruits Leaves
• Type of Fruit Berry
• Culinary Group Fruit Vegetables
• Taste bitter
• Trivial Names Menschenfressertomate, Kannibalentomate, Poro Poro, Boro-dina, Green Nightshade, Oupoo, Upoo, Porohiti, Poro’iti, ’ Öporo, Pogo, Poroporo, Poroporo Tohitika, Köporoporo, Pütämagamaga, Pütämagomago, Porohiti, Pomodoro Cannibale
• Size (fruit) 3 cm
• Taxonomy Solanaceae (Nightshade Family) Solanum viride
• Origin Melanesia (Map)
• Donated by Gaby Försterling 2018