What Poisons Taste Sweet?
You’ve got one – ethylene glycol, used in antifreeze. Lead(II) salts, notably the acetate, also taste sweet. The Romans actually used it as a sweetener (by boiling grape juice in lead pans), and lead shot was sometimes added to sweeten port wine, all despite the well-known toxicity of lead. Beryllium salts are also reported to be sweet – the element was formerly named glucinium for this property. Beryllium is most toxic by inhalation, but ingestion of its salts is probably also bad (though wikipedia claims not much is absorbed through the gut). Licorice contains a compound called glycyrrhizin that is sweeter than sugar. It is also toxic, especially in people with high blood pressure – it sounds like a few hundred milligrams per day can be consumed safely; more than this would probably produce adverse health effects. Wikipedia claims that chloroform and nitrobenzene are also sweet. Chloroform would be almost useless as an ingestable poison though – it evaporates quickly and isn’t odorle
