If this kind of fruit appears on the street, the elderly should not pick it up and children should not eat it!

Autumn is coming

Ginkgo trees are also "covered in gold"

Attracted many passers-by to stop and watch

But in this beautiful scenery

But there is a lot of danger hidden

Recently, the fruits on many roadside ginkgo trees in Xi'an have begun to fall. Many citizens, especially middle-aged and elderly people, will pick up a large number of ginkgo fruits under the trees with bags.

The fruit of ginkgo is called ginkgo nut. Due to its high nutritional value, people pick and eat it when it is ripe. However, improper consumption, especially eating ginkgo nut raw, can cause poisoning, allergies and other consequences, and in severe cases, it may be life-threatening!

Today we will study:

What are the nutritional values ​​of ginkgo?

What harm may be caused by improper consumption of ginkgo nuts?

How to eat ginkgo nuts correctly?

ginkgo

Ginkgo has other names such as duck feet, spiritual eyes, and Buddha nails. Its medicinal value is very high. The Compendium of Materia Medica records its value: "Cooked ginkgo can warm the lungs and replenish qi, calm asthma and cough, reduce urination, and stop leukorrhea."

Ginkgo nuts contain a variety of nutrients, including starch, protein, fat, and sugar, vitamin C, riboflavin, carotene, calcium, phosphorus, iron, potassium, magnesium, and other trace elements, as well as ginkgolic acid, ginkgo phenol, pentose polysaccharides, and sterols. It has therapeutic and medical effects such as benefiting the lungs, curing cough and asthma, stopping tapeworms, reducing stool, smoothing wrinkles, protecting blood vessels, and increasing blood flow .

The flavonoids and bitter lactones in the seed kernel also have special preventive and therapeutic effects on diseases such as cerebral thrombosis, senile dementia, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, coronary heart disease, arteriosclerosis, and brain dysfunction .

In addition, ginkgo also has the effect of treating acne. Modern pharmacological research shows that ginkgo contains ginkgolic acid, bilobalide, bilobalol and other ingredients. Among them, ginkgolic acid has a strong inhibitory and killing effect on Propionibacterium acnes and Staphylococcus epidermidis that cause acne, while bilobalide can inhibit inflammatory reactions, so it has a good effect on acne caused by bacterial infection and inflammation .

Easy to be poisoned

Although ginkgo nuts are rich in nutritional value, it does not mean that the more you eat, the better, because unprocessed ginkgo nuts contain toxins .

Ginkgo nuts contain toxic ingredients such as cyanogenic glycosides, which can be converted into hydrocyanic acid in the human body, a highly toxic and deadly substance. Therefore, eating a large amount of ginkgo nuts at one time may cause poisoning, especially if eaten raw. If children eat 5-10 ginkgo nuts at a time and adults eat 10-50 ginkgo nuts, they will cause poisoning or even death .

Huang Gang, deputy director of the emergency department of Xi'an Traditional Chinese Medicine Brain Disease Hospital, reminded that children are more likely to be poisoned by eating ginkgo than adults, and the younger the age, the higher the mortality rate .

According to the Dalian Daily:

For those with mild poisoning , symptoms include dull expression, slow reaction, and decreased appetite. Those in better condition will recover quickly on their own. For those with severe poisoning , most will first experience nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, dizziness, and headache, followed by irritability, mental fear, sometimes screaming, sometimes dementia, frequent convulsions, and fever.

In severe cases, the patient may lose consciousness and then go into a coma, and experience difficulty breathing, a weak and irregular pulse, and in severe cases, the lower limbs may even be paralyzed .

There are risks in eating ginkgo nuts, and the picking process can easily cause allergic reactions. The peel of ginkgo nuts contains ginkgolic acid , which can invade human skin and people with sensitive constitutions are prone to allergies.

Generally, skin allergies caused by ginkgo will cause main symptoms such as edema erythema, dense papules, etc., accompanied by obvious itching. In severe cases, skin erosion and ulceration may occur.

If you want to pick the gingko nuts, you should wear glasses and plastic gloves when rubbing the skin to avoid damage to your eyes and skin. People with a history of allergies or allergic constitutions should not pick, wash or eat ginkgo nuts to prevent allergies.

What should you do if you accidentally get allergic to ginkgo? Huang Gang, deputy director of the emergency department of Xi'an Traditional Chinese Medicine Brain Disease Hospital, said that when you first come into contact with ginkgo, you generally won't have an allergic reaction immediately, and most people will have a 24 to 48 hour sensitization period .

Once an allergic reaction occurs, you need to pay great attention and remember not to use hot water to wash . Because hot water will expand the capillaries in the skin, which will amplify the inflammation and aggravate the condition. You should go to the hospital immediately .

Ginkgo safety tips

1. How to eat ginkgo?

The toxic components of ginkgo nuts are easily soluble in water, and their toxicity will be reduced after heating. Therefore, they can be soaked in clean water for more than 1 hour before eating, and the green germ in the pulp can be removed. Then, they can be heated and cooked, which can greatly improve the safety of eating ginkgo nuts.

Chen Zhigang, deputy director of the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Dalian Third People's Hospital, reminded that raw ginkgo nuts should not be eaten. Although the toxicity of fried ginkgo nuts is reduced, they should still not be eaten in large quantities . Adults should not eat more than 10 ginkgo nuts at a time, and children should not eat more than 5 ginkgo nuts at a time. Children under 5 years old are prohibited from eating ginkgo nuts .

2. Who should not eat ginkgo nuts?

Zhang Hua, director of the Xi'an Nutrition Society, reminds us that there are three types of people who are not suitable for eating ginkgo:

The first category is people with allergies . Ginkgo nuts are somewhat toxic, and some people with allergies may have allergic reactions after eating them.

The second category is children . Children are prone to poisoning when eating ginkgo nuts. The younger they are, the more likely they are to be poisoned, and the more serious the poisoning.

The third category is pregnant women . Pregnant women have special physical constitutions, and ginkgo nuts are toxic to a certain extent. Pregnant women should not eat ginkgo nuts, otherwise it may affect the nervous system development or physical development of the fetus.

In addition, people who are prone to bleeding and those with weak constitution should not eat ginkgo nuts .