ABSTRACT
The consumption by humans of plants with potential to induce neurological disorders is widespread, but overt disease surfaces only when the subject's toxic threshold is exceeded. Excessive intake arising from food dependency in the setting of hunger, chronic undernutrition, vitamin deficiency, inadequate detoxication, or other individual susceptibility, can trigger acute encephalopathy (lychee, ackee fruits), sub-acute spastic paraparesis (grasspea, cassava root/leaves) or ataxic neuropathy (cassava root flour). While these disorders are very rarely encountered in high-income countries, they are not only common among impoverished populations but also often occur as outbreaks that impact a significant proportion of an affected community. Unfamiliarity with the adverse effects of plant toxins has sometimes led to the mistaken attribution of nutritional neurotoxic disease to a neurotropic viral or synthetic pesticidal etiology. The combination of human population growth, food and water insecurity, poverty and, with climate change, increased dependency on environmentally tolerant plants with neurotoxic potential, predictably may result in an increased prevalence of nutritional neurotoxic disorders, especially in certain parts of Africa and Asia.
Subject(s)
Malnutrition/complications , Nervous System Diseases/chemically induced , Neurotoxicity Syndromes/etiology , Plants/toxicity , Blighia/adverse effects , Disease Susceptibility , Humans , Litchi/adverse effects , Malnutrition/epidemiology , Manihot/adverse effects , Manihot/toxicity , Nervous System Diseases/epidemiology , Nervous System Diseases/etiology , Neurotoxicity Syndromes/epidemiology , Plant Poisoning/complications , Plant Poisoning/epidemiology , Poverty AreasABSTRACT
Ackee apple fruit is a native fruit to Jamaica and some parts of west Africa. Its toxicity known as "Jamaican vomiting sickness" dates back to the nineteenth century. However, there is a dearth of reported published data on toxicity from Nigeria where it is popularly known in the southwest as "ishin." We report a case series of eight previously well Nigerian siblings who presented at various intervals after ingestion of roasted seeds and aril of the ackee fruit.
Subject(s)
Blighia/adverse effects , Fruit/adverse effects , Plant Poisoning/diagnosis , Seeds/adverse effects , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Nigeria , Public Health , Seeds/toxicity , SiblingsABSTRACT
In January and February 1991, the health officer in the parish of St. Ann, Jamaica, received reports of eight persons with Toxic Hypoglycemic Syndrome (THS), an illness associated with consumption of unripe ackee fruit and, possibly, renta yam; two cases were fatal. On July 25, the Jamaican Ministry of Health (JMH) contacted the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for assistance in investigating the continuous occurence of THS; the collaborative JMH and CDC epidemiologic investigation focused on characterizing the epidemiology of THS in Jamaica and assessing the role of ackee fruit, renta yams, and other factors (AU)