Can die from eating fresh bamboo shoots

Each kg of bamboo shoots contains enough toxins to cause immediate death for two children over one year old. When boiled for about 12 hours, the amount of poison remains 2/3.

Fresh bamboo shoots.Photo: Internet

PON Green Hospital, Hanoi has once provided emergency treatment to a critical child due to poisoning after the family gave away fresh water from fresh bamboo shoots to reduce fever.The patient is Duong Quang T., 9 months old, in Dong Anh, Hanoi.After drinking bamboo shoots for less than 30 minutes, children have vomiting, shortness of breath, convulsions, and coma.Through examination, doctors diagnosed Cyanide poisoning by drinking fresh bamboo shoots.

Why poisoning fresh bamboo shoots?

Cyanide is an Acid-based (CN) compound whose compounds include salts or acids, which have very toxic properties, and a fatal dose of 1 mg / kg body weight.In fresh bamboo shoot, Cyanide content is very high, about 230mg / kg of bamboo shoots.When people eat bamboo shoots containing Cyanide, under the influence of digestive enzymes, Cyanide immediately turns into Cyanhydric Acid (HCN), an extremely toxic substance to the body.

In the body, Cyanide acts on the cellular respiration chain by inactivating iron enzymes of Cytocromoxydase or Warburgase, which cause cell oxygen deficiency and severe metabolic acidosis.

Expression of fresh bamboo poisoning

Depending on the amount of Cyanide present in bamboo shoots, people exhibit different severe and mild toxicity.Symptoms usually appear after eating bamboo shoots for 5 to 30 minutes.Mild cases, manifestations of fear, anxiety, dizziness, headache, disturbance of consciousness, nausea, vomiting, irritation of the respiratory mucosa .

Severe cases show seizures, stiffness, stiffness, dilated pupils, respiratory failure, cyanosis, coma.More severe will stop breathing, rapid and irregular heartbeat, atrioventricular dysfunction, is the main cause of death after a few minutes if not timely emergency.

Handling bamboo poisoning

When people who eat a lot of bamboo shoots appear on these signs, they should immediately help the vomiting victim, give artificial respiration if breathing stops, immediately bring the victim to the nearest medical center.

In health facilities, it is necessary to immediately address respiratory distress, anti-acidosis, anticonvulsant, remove toxins in the blood and in the gastrointestinal tract.One of the important properties of Cyanide is its inactivation by glucose by producing a less toxic C7H13O6N compound.Therefore, the method of intravenous glucose transmission has the effect of preventing metabolic acidosis and has the effect of removing toxic substances.

Preventing bamboo poisoning

Each kg of bamboo shoots has about 230 mg of Cyanide, which can cause immediate death for two children over one year of age.When boiled for about 12 hours, Cyanide content is still about 160 mg per kg.But if boiled and soaked in water for a long time, when the bamboo has turned yellow and sour, the Cyanide content is less than 9 mg per kilogram.Up to now, there is no document guiding how to make bamboo shoots to ensure safety, but based on folk experience and the characteristic of Cyanide content in bamboo shoots, to avoid poisoning when eating bamboo shoots, it is best to Boil the bamboo shoots thoroughly, when boiling water many times, soak enough time before using.

Misconceptions such as drinking fresh bamboo shoots for fever and healing, not cooking bamboo shoots for fear of losing quality, pickled vinegar has not enough time to eat . will be the main causes of bamboo poisoning.