Sprouting potato poisoning

作者：admin  点击次数：7  发布时间：2025-05-10

(I) Etiology Potatoes, commonly known as potatoes or sweet potatoes, contain solanine, also known as alkali. Solanine is an alkaloid that is insoluble in water but soluble in potato juice. The solanine content of potatoes varies with varieties and seasons, and generally does not exceed 0.01%. In mature potato tubers, the solanine content is extremely low, generally 20~100 mg per kilogram of fresh tissue, mainly concentrated in the bud eyes, epidermis and green parts, and normal consumption will not cause poisoning. However, in immature potato tubers or in the green skin of potato tubers with green epidermis and sprouts that are improperly stored, and around the bud holes, the solanine content is relatively high, up to 0.06%, sometimes even as high as 0.43%, and it will cause poisoning if not properly handled when eaten. Generally, people will be poisoned if they eat 200~400 mg of solanine.
Solanine has a strong stimulating effect on the gastrointestinal mucosa, paralyzes the respiratory center, and can cause cerebral edema and congestion. In addition, it has a hemolytic effect on red blood cells.
The main cause of poisoning is that potatoes sprout or turn green due to improper storage, which increases the amount of solanine. If it is not removed or destroyed during cooking, food poisoning will occur after eating. It is especially common in late spring and early summer. (II) Symptoms of poisoning
The incubation period is generally 1 to 12 hours. First, there is an itchy and burning sensation in the throat, a burning sensation or pain in the upper abdomen, and then symptoms of gastroenteritis appear. In addition, there may be symptoms such as dizziness, headache, dilated pupils, tinnitus, and convulsions in severe cases, which may lead to death due to respiratory paralysis.
(III) Preventive measures
(1) Improve the storage conditions of potatoes. Potatoes should be stored in a cool, ventilated, dry place without direct sunlight to prevent sprouting and turning green. In recent years, irradiation of potatoes has achieved satisfactory results in inhibiting sprouting. (2) When eating sprouted potatoes, the skin, sprouts, and tissues around the sprouts should be removed, and they should be fully heated before eating. Because solanine is easily decomposed by vinegar, adding some vinegar during cooking can accelerate the destruction of solanine. Those with many sprouts or black-green skin and flesh cannot be eaten.
3. Food poisoning containing cyanoglycosides
(I) Etiology
Many higher plants contain cyanogenic glycosides. Cyanogenic foods include bitter almonds, peach kernels, plum kernels, loquat kernels, cherry kernels, flax seeds, etc., which can cause poisoning, among which bitter almonds and cassava poisoning are the most common. The cyanogenic glycoside contained in cassava and flax seeds is linamarin, and the cyanogenic glycoside contained in bitter almonds, peach kernels, plum kernels, loquat kernels, and cherry kernels is amygdalin. The toxic effects and poisoning symptoms of the two are similar.
The reason why amygdalin causes poisoning is that it is hydrolyzed under the action of enzymes or acids to release volatile hydrocyanic acid amygdalin that dissolves in water. After eating the nuts, the amygdalin contained in it meets water in the mouth, esophagus, stomach and intestines, and is hydrolyzed by the amygdalin enzyme contained in it to release hydrocyanic acid, which is quickly absorbed into the blood by the gastrointestinal mucosa. Ions can inhibit the activity of many enzymes in the body, among which cytochrome oxidase is the most sensitive. Ions can combine with the trivalent iron ions of cytochrome oxidase in mitochondria to form cytochrome oxidase-complexes, thereby inhibiting cell respiration and causing tissue suffocation and death. At the same time, hydrocyanic acid can also act on the respiratory center and vasomotor center, paralyzing them and finally leading to death. The minimum lethal oral dose of hydrocyanic acid is 0.5~3.5mg per kilogram of body weight. Children eating 6 bitter almonds and adults eating 10 can cause poisoning; children eating 10~20 and adults eating 40~60 can cause death.
After the hydrolysis of linamarin, hydrocyanic acid is also released, but linamarin cannot be hydrolyzed in the acidic stomach, but must be hydrolyzed in the small intestine. Therefore, the development of cassava poisoning is relatively slow.
Bitter almond poisoning often occurs when the apricots are ripe, and it is more common in children who do not understand the toxicity of bitter almonds and eat them raw; they use bitter almonds to treat children's cough without a doctor's prescription, which causes poisoning.
The main cause of cassava poisoning is that people in cassava producing areas (especially new producing areas) do not understand the toxicity of wood, and eat cassava that has not been properly processed or eaten raw.
2) Poisoning symptoms
The body temperature of bitter almond poisoners is generally normal, the incubation period of poisoning is 0.5~12h, and the course of the disease is several hours or 1~2d. The main symptoms are bitter taste in the mouth, salivation, dizziness, headache, nausea, vomiting, palpitations, weakness in the limbs, etc.; in severe cases, chest tightness and difficulty breathing, and sometimes the smell of bitter almonds can be smelled when breathing; in severe cases, unconsciousness, weak breathing, coma, cold limbs and screaming are common; followed by loss of consciousness, dilated pupils, loss of light reflex, clenched teeth, paroxysmal convulsions of the whole body, and finally death from respiratory paralysis and cardiac arrest. In addition, it can also cause multiple neuritis. The incubation period of cassava poisoning is slightly longer, generally 6 to 9 hours. The clinical symptoms are similar to those of bitter almond poisoning.
(III) Preventive measures
(1) Strengthen publicity and education work, especially to publicize the knowledge of bitter almond poisoning to children, and do not eat bitter almonds, plums, peach kernels, etc.
(2) Reasonable processing and consumption methods
①) Cyanogenic glycosides have good water solubility, and water soaking can remove most of the toxicity of foods containing cyanogenic glycosides. Kernel-like almonds
Foods need to be soaked and dried for a long time before eating, and fully heated to make them lose their toxicity. ② Do not eat cassava raw and must peel it before eating (90% of the glycosides contained in cassava are stored in the skin). Wash and slice it, add a lot of water and cook it in an open pot. Change the water and cook it again or soak it in water for more than 16 hours and discard the soup and water before eating. Despite this, cassava still contains a certain amount of cyanide. Therefore, cassava cannot be eaten on an empty stomach and cannot be eaten too much at one time. The elderly, the young, the weak and pregnant women should not eat it.
(3) When using bitter almonds as medicine to treat children's cough, do not take the medicine by yourself. Follow the doctor's advice and it must be detoxified before eating.
(4) Promote cassava varieties with low cyanogenic glycosides.