"Sugarcane during Qingming Festival is more poisonous than snakes." Be careful when eating sugarcane during Qingming Festival

"Sugarcane during Qingming Festival is more poisonous than snakes"

Around Qingming Festival

Be careful when eating sugarcane!

Sugarcane is usually

It is available around the Mid-Autumn Festival every year.

They will be sold out during the Qingming Festival of the following year.

During transportation and storage

It is easy to mold and produce toxins

Food poisoning caused by eating moldy sugarcane

Mostly occurs in early spring

The culprit is mold and discoloration.

“Red Heart” and “Black Heart” Sugarcane

Early symptoms are not obvious

After sugarcane is harvested, it is likely to become moldy and contaminated by Arthrinium spp. due to improper storage during transportation and sales . This mold will produce a highly toxic toxin during its growth and reproduction process - 3-nitropropanoic acid (3-NPA).

A very important characteristic of sugarcane mold is that the sugarcane core turns red or reddish brown. This is because the Nyctosporium fungus reproduces wildly and produces red nitric acid substances.

Researchers have conducted a special investigation on the "3-nitropropionic acid" content in sugarcane in the Jiangnan region in spring and found that the detection rate exceeded 50%, much higher than 10% in winter.

3-Nitropropionic acid is a strong neurotoxin. Once absorbed by the human body, it will cause damage to the central nervous system very quickly, leading to dizziness, headache, convulsions and other symptoms. In severe cases, it can lead to cerebral ischemia and necrosis, respiratory failure, and even death. Some poisoned patients may also suffer from language and movement disorders.

At present, there is no specific antidote for poisoning caused by eating moldy sugarcane containing "3-nitropropionic acid". The only way to ensure that you will not be poisoned is to avoid eating moldy sugarcane.

At this point, someone might ask: Can we eat it if we remove the red core?

No! No! No! (Important things should be said three times!)

After the sugarcane is invaded by mold, the mycelium has extended to every part of the sugarcane. Except for the moldy part, the intact part actually also contains toxins, but these toxins do not turn red, so they cannot be seen with the naked eye.

The Qingming Festival falls in spring, when the temperature continues to rise, making it a good time for mold and other bacteria to grow and reproduce, and sugarcane is prone to mold. Moldy sugarcane runs the risk of producing toxins, so the probability of sugarcane poisoning incidents is relatively high from February to April.

It is worth noting that as long as sugarcane is moldy, whether it is around the Qingming Festival or in other seasons, it will cause poisoning. It is not recommended to eat sugarcane that is soft, discolored, smells like wine, has hair, or has a red heart!

Early symptoms are not obvious

01｜Look at the exterior and center

Sugarcane with a black and reddish, smooth, and white frost-covered skin is relatively fresh. If the sugarcane is of poor color, has flocculent or hairy white matter at the end, and has reddish-yellow, brown-brown, or dark blue spots on the cross section after cutting, it means it has gone moldy. Don't buy such sugarcane!

02｜Touch hardness

Fresh sugarcane is hard, while moldy sugarcane is soft . If you buy soft sugarcane, be careful.

03｜Identify whether there is any odor

The sugarcane juice squeezed from normal sugarcane tastes sweet, crisp and refreshing, and has the unique fragrance of sugarcane. If you smell any sour, moldy or wine lees odor, it means it has deteriorated and such sugarcane cannot be eaten.

Early symptoms are not obvious

Source: Hubei Economic TV, Jiangsu CDC, Hangzhou Daily, Guangzhou Daily, Science Popularization Guizhou