Science Check
Can You Build Immunity to Poison Through Exposure?
The claim
In The Apothecary Diaries, Maomao claims her body is so used to poisons that they no longer have any effect on her, after years of testing them on herself. Can you really make yourself insensitive to poison through gradual exposure?
Detailed verdict
| Sub-claim | Verdict |
|---|---|
| On peut s'habituer à un poison en ingérant des doses croissantes (mithridatisation) | Plausible |
| Cette accoutumance protège indistinctement contre tous les poisons | False |
| Maomao est immunisée au point que les poisons ne lui font plus aucun effet | Simplified |
What the real science says
Habituation to a substance is a very real pharmacological phenomenon. For some products, repeated exposure to increasing doses leads the body to cope with them better. The mechanism can be metabolic, the liver learning to break the substance down faster, or functional, the organism adapting to its presence. This is what happens with alcohol, some opiates, or plants like the ones Maomao uses. The practice is even named after a historical figure: King Mithridates VI of Pontus, who, fearing poisoning, is said to have taken antidotes and small doses of toxins throughout his life. Partial tolerance to some poisons is therefore entirely credible.
But tolerance is always specific: getting used to one substance offers no protection against another that acts through a different mechanism. You do not habituate to a heavy metal like lead, which builds up in the body far faster than it is eliminated, nor to a neurotoxin like the fugu’s tetrodotoxin, whose margin is so narrow that the “training” dose is nearly the killing one. Worse, for many toxins repeated exposure does not immunize: it poisons slowly.
True immunity, in the sense of an immune system producing antibodies, exists only against a small number of protein-based poisons, such as certain venoms, and under strict medical protocols. It applies neither to plant alkaloids (the active molecules of plants, precisely the ones Maomao handles) nor to metals.
Why The Apothecary Diaries simplifies
Where the story stretches the truth is in suggesting general protection. The core of the claim is sound: you can build tolerance to certain poisons through gradual exposure, and the history of mithridatism is genuine. But the series turns it into near-invulnerability, which does not exist: no habituation protects against every poison at once, and many of them simply poison a little more with each dose.
The character writing, though, stays surprisingly honest: Maomao herself recounts having been poisoned from playing with plants, which is the logical, realistic consequence of her practice. Her “immunity” is a great character trait, not a toxicological reality.
Going further
- 📚 The Poison King (Adrienne Mayor, Princeton University Press, 2010): the reference biography of Mithridates VI and his toxicological legend.
- 🔗 Is chocolate really an aphrodisiac?: the series’ other big pharmacological claim, put to the test.
Sources
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