Moldy Sugarcane Is More Poisonous Than a Snake; Drink Sugarcane Juice with Caution During Qingming
Original title: Moldy sugarcane "more poisonous than a venomous snake," can cause death in severe cases
Doctors remind people not to buy moldy sugarcane or drink sugarcane juice of unknown origin
Beware of "red-heart sugarcane" (illustrative image from the internet)
Recently, a post titled "More Poisonous Than a Venomous Snake, Never Drink This Sugarcane Juice Around Qingming" has been circulating widely online, and in some places there is even a folk saying that "Qingming sugarcane is more poisonous than a snake," which has raised doubts among some citizens who enjoy eating sugarcane. In response, doctors say the saying "Qingming sugarcane is more poisonous than a snake" has been misinterpreted by many netizens; eating sugarcane has little to do with the Qingming Festival, and only eating moldy sugarcane can easily cause poisoning, while fresh sugarcane can be eaten normally.
Citizens Have Doubts About the Saying "Qingming Sugarcane Is More Poisonous Than a Snake"
In recent days, reporters visited fruit shops and fruit stalls near several meat and vegetable markets in the urban area, including Dongyuan and Ganglie, and saw that most of them were selling sugarcane. There are two common types of sugarcane on the market: one is black-skinned sugarcane with dark purple skin, and the other is green-skinned sugarcane. "Local sugarcane starts hitting the market in large quantities in January," a sugarcane vendor at Ganglie Market told reporters. Local sugarcane is thicker and tastes fresh and sweet, making it quite popular with customers. He has sold sugarcane for several years and has never heard of anyone being poisoned by eating sugarcane around Qingming.
As for the saying "Qingming sugarcane is more poisonous than a snake," some citizens said they had never heard of it. "I usually like eating sugarcane, and whenever sugarcane is in season, I always buy some to take home and enjoy," said Aunt Liang, who was buying sugarcane. She really did not know whether sugarcane around Qingming could be eaten. However, some citizens said they had heard of it. "A while ago, I saw a friend repost on WeChat a post saying that sugarcane around Qingming is poisonous and cannot be eaten, and later I heard that someone had been poisoned after eating it, so I had doubts and now I dare not eat it," said citizen Ms. Xu.
Eating Moldy Sugarcane Can Cause Death in Severe Cases
"The saying 'Qingming sugarcane, more poisonous than a snake' has been misinterpreted by many netizens. It is not that sugarcane around Qingming cannot be eaten, but that moldy sugarcane cannot be eaten," said Huang Yaosen, a chief nutrition physician at the Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Sugarcane itself is not poisonous, but because it is fairly rich in water and sugar, and because temperatures rise in spring and the air is humid, sugarcane is very prone to molding if not stored properly. Moldy sugarcane loses its proper luster, becomes soft in texture, and its flesh turns light brown or dark brown, commonly known as "red-heart sugarcane" and "black-heart sugarcane," and it may smell of nothing unusual, or of mold and distillers' grains.
Huang Yaosen said that after sugarcane becomes moldy, it produces a fungus called "Arthrinium," and the 3-nitropropionic acid toxin it produces is a neurotoxin. The content of this toxin in moldy sugarcane is not high at first, but as temperatures rise, the rate at which the toxin is produced will increase exponentially. Once a person eats this moldy sugarcane, the toxin is rapidly absorbed after entering the body and causes damage to the central nervous system within a short time. Moldy sugarcane poisoning has a sudden onset, and the incubation period varies, ranging from as short as 10 minutes to as long as several hours. Mild symptoms include vomiting and dizziness, and some people experience convulsions, hands shaped like chicken claws, strabismus, and spastic paralysis of both lower limbs. Severe cases can leave lasting disability, and the most serious cases result in death within 1 to 3 days.
Huang Yaosen reminds people that at present there is still no particularly good treatment for moldy sugarcane poisoning. When consumers buy sugarcane, if they find white flocculent or downy fungal hyphae at both ends of the outer skin, or if after cutting it open the cross-section appears red, yellow, or black, with thread-like substances and a sour, spoiled moldy smell or distillers' grains smell, they must not buy it. In addition, they should not buy sugarcane juice of unknown origin, to prevent unscrupulous vendors from squeezing moldy sugarcane into juice and selling it, causing poisoning. (Reporter Deng Xianzhi)