Do not eat sugarcane that has turned red and moldy; be careful when eating it around Qingming

Elders say "Qingming sugarcane is more poisonous than a snake" - why?

After a winter, during transport and storage, sugarcane becomes contaminated with a mold called Arthrinium, which produces a toxin called 3-nitropropionic acid. This is a relatively fatal toxin; in mild cases it causes nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and blurred vision, and in severe cases it can cause limb convulsions and even cerebral edema and pulmonary edema, leading to respiratory failure and death, with a fatality rate of more than 10%.

Why is it sugarcane around Qingming?

We just mentioned that sugarcane has gone through a winter of storage and suffered infection by Arthrinium; the tiny amount of toxin produced by this bacterium is far from posing a threat to the human body. But around Qingming the rain falls thick and fast, and there is more rain before and after Qingming, while temperatures rise again, so this bacterium multiplies very rapidly, causing further contamination of the sugarcane until toxins accumulate in large amounts, threatening human life after being eaten.

Replace with high-definition large image

How can you tell whether it has been infected by bacteria?

At this point sugarcane can be identified by "two looks and one sniff". First, look at whether the leaves are fresh; if the leaves are fresh, or if the sugarcane even shows signs of sprouting, it proves that this sugarcane is still "alive" and can be bought and eaten with confidence. Second, look at whether the inside of the sugarcane has turned red; if the sugarcane is found to be soft and the inside is red, do not buy it at all, let alone eat it. The one sniff is to smell the sugarcane; if there is a moldy smell, or the alcoholic smell of fermentation, this sugarcane is very likely moldy sugarcane, so do not buy it.

Replace with high-definition large image

There are two points to note

First, you should pay attention to whether sugarcane is moldy not only when buying sugarcane, but also when buying sugarcane juice, because the toxins of moldy sugarcane dissolve in the juice and are extremely hard to detect, so be cautious about buying sugarcane of unknown origin.

Second, if you find that the center of the sugarcane has turned red, some friends feel that throwing it away is wasteful, so they cut off the section with the red center and eat the sugarcane with a normal color; this method is wrong. Because after the pathogen invades the sugarcane, the mycelium can extend, and even if the moldy part is cut off promptly, the other parts with a normal color also contain large amounts of toxins invisible to the naked eye.

Replace with high-definition large image

Qingming sugarcane is more poisonous than a snake - there is indeed some truth to this, but when buying sugarcane you do not need to be too careful, and you certainly do not need to give up eating sugarcane for fear of eating moldy sugarcane. We just need to be careful about moldy sugarcane when buying it.

This is Science Agriculture, welcome to follow, and let us learn together.