A young woman was amazed when her car keyring made with red bean beads was completely destroyed after the beans were cooked when she left them inside the vehicle on a hot day.

The surprising incident involving the keyring made from acacia lovesick beans happened when the vehicle was parked on the street in the prefecture-level city of Yuncheng in Shanxi province in China.

She also managed to post pictures of what it looked like before and after, when the black and red beans had been roasted in the hot sun.

Instead of the polished red – they had enlarged in size distorting the keyring out of shape so that it was hard to notice the key, and had become an explosion of yellow, black and orange instead of the previous red.

The before and after images attracted widespread interest after being posted on social media, with many people noticing it seemed good enough to eat.

But that would be a mistake.

Acacia seeds are well known as being something you can store for a long time and it is grown around the world with uses for the whole plant including food, timber fuel and even musical instruments.

But it is also poisonous and eating this particular variety could be fatal for humans.

The story was also published as a warning to illustrate how it can get extremely hot in vehicles, reminding people not to leave potentially dangerous items like lighters, electrical items with batteries or perfume bottles in a hot car to avoid accidents.