I take it that your friend has never eaten cycad seeds nor used tinctures of them on open skin lesions. Cycads are toxic but, in most areas of the world where cycads occur, indigenous locals have processed them as food and in all except (as far as we know) Australia there is an endemic syndrome that has been conflated with at least some versions of ALS in the past. Most versions of processing for food seem to remove the cycasin (the alkaloid that confers the toxicity but processing to produce tinctures may not.

Looking up "Guam disease" or cycasin should provide more info.

All the best. Cheers, Rowan