Acute poisoning in Tanzania : the role of insufficiently processed cassava roots | [Envenenamiento agudo en Tanzania : el papel de las raices de yuca mal procesadas]
1996
Ming, Nicholas L.V.
In 1988, an outbreak of acute poisoning occurred in a drought-stricken district in southern Tanzania. Studies carried out in the area revealed that the victims had high levels of thiocyanate, a cyanide metabolite found in the body's plasma and urine. The high dietary cyanide came from consuming insufficiently processed roots of cassava, the only crop to survive the prolonged drought. Because of food scarcity, the customary, but lengthy, sun-drying of peeled cassava roots was replaced by a repeated pounding and sun-drying of peeled roots to obtain flour for consumption the same day. An experiment in one village showed that the principal source of dietary cyanide comprised the high residual levels of cyanohydrin (the intermediate breakdown product), which ranged from 16 to 20 mg CN equivalent per kg dry weight. The shortened processing method adopted during the drought resulted in high glucoside levels ranging from 3 to 879 mg CN equivalent per kg dry weight in the final products. Rapid, but more effective, tissue disintegration and drying techniques that easily remove cyanogenic glucosides and cyanohydrins from the roots and prevent poisoning are urgently needed in this area. An intervention program has been established to develop an extension package for cassava processing, and to make the population aware of the problem and adopt more efficient processing methods.
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