Lychee Fruit Killing People

[marcar72]

... in India.

Lychees behind mystery killer disease in India, researchers say - CNN.com

 

[sladerunner69]

Don't believe the liberal media!

 

[Tenacity]

fake news

 

[ecstatichamster]

Seems it is from unripe fruit?

 

[nikolabeacon]

Small children can develop a serious allergy from certain foods and if ignored it can lead to systemic disfunction and death. It is a known fact i think that all berry fruits , kiwis, unripe fruits and dark honeys are not allowed for babies and small children because it can cause severe allergy, complication and even death. For older people also ..mentioned things can cause serious inflammation and systemic mess. Unripe Mulberries can cause hallucinations and elevated temperature.

 

[Gl;itch.e]

We must ban Lychees before they claim another life! No More Lives For Lychees! No More Lives For Lychees!

 

[tara]

Why would this be fake news?
Is there something surprising to people who read Peat that seeds can contain toxins and large quantities of some seeds and/or unripe fruit could cause big problems for some undernourished kids?

Morals of the story:
If you are going to eat lots of lychees, esp. unripe ones, remember to spit out the seeds.
Don't eat many of them if you are in a depleted/undernourished state.
Don't give kids large quantities, and make sure they get some other carbohydrates regularly over the following hours and days.

 

[lvysaur]

I thought it was common knowledge here that lychee seeds are poisonous.

 

[Such_Saturation]

Worth it imo

 

[Gl;itch.e]

Worth it imo

LOL! They are nice that's for sure. Although I don't know why any one would eat/swallow the seeds. They are big and easy enough to take out or eat around.

 

[Such_Saturation]

LOL! They are nice that's for sure. Although I don't know why any one would eat/swallow the seeds. They are big and easy enough to take out or eat around.

Perhaps we underestimate people's laziness

 

[Gl;itch.e]

Perhaps they deserve to go the way of the dodo then. More Lychees for me!

 

[ddjd]

I thought it was common knowledge here that lychee seeds are poisonous.

Are they???

 

[Herbie]

Are they???

They are extremely bitter if accident biting into. No way could someone eat one

 

[Doc Sandoz]

We must ban Lychees before they claim another life! No More Lives For Lychees! No More Lives For Lychees!

 

[Doc Sandoz]

We used to get dried lychees on a "dessert" tray along with three other odd confections at the end of a Chinese dinner at Wong's. I liked 'em a lot, but what does one do with the pit? No way to dispose of it gracefully. So eat it? No way, big and bitter like a cherry stone. I personally raised my napkin and spit it out so as to fall under the table.

 

[Lord Cola]

So is it the seeds that are toxic, or does the whole fruit have too much of that hypoglycin?

Kind of suspicious that these deaths allegedly started occuring starting 1995, when the fruit might have been cultivated for far longer than that, and they blame it on the fruit, which the people living there may have been eating for generations. If the toxins are found mainly in the seeds, why not recommend that people avoid eating the seeds, rather than dismiss the entire fruit?

This article suggests a child weighing 10 kg would have to eat 1.72 kg of semi-ripe ackee fruit pulp to develop "full blown" toxicity, assuming the implicated substance in lychee is as strong as hypoglycin-A:

Is the amount of MCPG present in semi-ripe and ripe litchi sufficient to cause toxicity and deaths of children who consume it? The fatality rates of the illness caused by hypoglycin A (MCPA) in Africa and West Indies (80%) [13] were much higher than the reported figures in Muzaffarpur (26%-44%) [4,6,8]. It denotes that probably the hypoglycin A (MCPA) is a much more potent toxin than MCPG. Even if it is assumed that MCPG is as toxic as MCPA and has the same LD50, a child weighing 10 kg would need to consume at least 1.72 kg (approx 120 litchis) pulp of semi-ripe litchi or 5.4 kg pulp (approx 360 litchis) of ripe litchi to develop full blown toxicity!

 

[lilsticky]

hypoglycin-A inhibits fatty acid oxidation. sounds peaty to me