It is the peak season! Don’t eat sugarcane around the Qingming Festival!

Have you heard of this proverb?

"Sugarcane during Qingming Festival is more poisonous than snakes"

Every around Qingming Festival

Be extra cautious when eating sugarcane

If you accidentally eat it

Moldy sugar cane

It's poisonous .

01

Don't eat a single bite of this kind of sugarcane

In fact, it is not the sugarcane itself that is more poisonous than a snake, but the moldy and discolored "red heart" or "black heart" sugarcane.

Sugarcane mold will produce a neurotoxin , which is a toxic metabolite of 3-nitropropionic acid produced by a few species of Penicillium and Aspergillus. Once it enters the human body, it is absorbed and the disease develops rapidly, usually within a dozen minutes to a dozen hours.

In a short period of time, it causes damage to the central nervous system, leading to cerebral edema, headache, convulsions, stiff limbs, feet like chicken claws, and dilated pupils in severe cases; severe cases can lead to ischemia and respiratory failure and death . Some patients poisoned by sugarcane toxins also have sequelae such as language and movement disorders.

At the same time, it is not recommended to eat sugarcane that is soft, discolored, smells like wine, or has hair .

Is it okay to cut off the moldy part of the sugarcane and eat the rest?

Can't!

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.

02

Is it only the sugarcane around the Qingming Festival that is “more poisonous than snakes”?

Sugarcane is usually harvested and put on the market around the Mid-Autumn Festival every year and will not be sold out until around the Qingming Festival of the following year.

The reason why sugarcane poisoning is related to Qingming Festival is that the weather is getting warmer and there are many plum rains during the Qingming Festival. At this time, sugarcane is easily infected with mold and becomes "Qingming sugarcane".

Moldy sugarcane has the risk of producing toxins, so food poisoning caused by eating moldy sugarcane often occurs in early spring, with the peak period from February to March .

But whenever sugarcane becomes moldy, it can still cause poisoning .

03

Don’t panic! Choose sugarcane and eat it with confidence

01 Touch

Use your hands to feel the hardness of the sugar cane. Fresh sugar cane is hard , while moldy sugar cane is soft.

02 Look

Observe whether the pulp of the sugarcane is fresh. Fresh pulp is milky white , while moldy pulp is slightly darker, light brown. The surface of moldy sugarcane is generally dull in color and poor in appearance, with traces of worms visible between nodes or between small sections. At the end of the moldy sugarcane, there will be flocculent or hairy white substances, and after cutting, there will be red filaments on the cross section.

03 News

Use your nose to smell the sugarcane to see if there is any bad smell. Fresh sugarcane has a fresh fragrance . If you smell sour, moldy, or wine lees, it means it has gone bad and cannot be eaten.

04

What should I do if I get poisoned by moldy sugarcane?

If you feel unwell after eating sugarcane, or if parents find that their children are showing abnormal symptoms after eating sugarcane, they should immediately call the emergency number and go to the hospital for treatment .

Currently, there is no specific antidote for spoiled sugarcane poisoning. For patients who have consumed spoiled sugarcane in a short period of time, vomiting, gastric lavage, enema and other methods should be used to remove residual toxins in the gastrointestinal tract as early as possible.

It is especially important to note that sugar cane has a high sugar content, so you should eat it in moderation and not eat too much. Especially for people with diabetes and high blood sugar, they should pay more attention to eating less sugar cane.

Source: Healthy Guangdong, Guangdong Disease Control, Public Health and Preventive Medicine

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