Unripe kawakawa fruit as vegetable

It is well known that the ripe fruits of the common New Zealand native plant kawakawa (Macropiper excelsum) are edible, though they have a very strong unusual flavor. I've found the birds usually get the ripe fruit where I am so I decided to try the green unripe fruit as food. They have a sharp taste raw, a bit like mint, too strong for my liking and are also a bit dry, but boiled they loose their pungency and dryness, becoming milder in flavor the longer you boil them, but still with a distinct peppery-mint taste. They have a pleasing consistency, like baby corn. An acceptable vegetable to add to stir fries or similar dishes in my opinion. Their rather small size being the only drawback.

There are no reports of the unripe fruit being toxic in humans or animals and many herbivores like eating kawakawa so it is highly likely poisoning in animals would have been noticed. However rats died when fed dried leaves of this plant at 60% of their diet (1) so perhaps some caution may be advisable as the leaves and ripe and unripe fruit taste similar so presumably have similar chemistry. 60% seems like a lot, rats might die on 60% of a lot of things I suppose. This report does not seem to worry anyone, the leaves are popular as a tea, are used medicinally, and are increasingly being used as food, there have been no reports of toxicity in humans and another study concludes the tea is safe in moderate quantities at least (2). It is possible cooking removes any possible toxins since it reduces the intense flavor.

 The plant is also notable for producing fruit in full shade or near full shade, the plant will also grow in deep shade in the understory where little else can but I don't think it will produce fruit in deep shade. It has also adapted very well to human colonization of New Zealand, often growing wild in suburbs. Fruit only occurring on female plants is a drawback.   

References.

(1) A Field Guide to the Native Edible Plants of New Zealand. Andrew Crow. 2004.

(2) Composition and safety evaluation of tea from New Zealand kawakawa (Macropiper excelsum). C Butt et al. Ethnopharmicol. 2019.   

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30572092/