Food poison

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A food poison is a poison that can be ingested through food, i.e. orally. In contrast, there are contact and breath poisons .

Food poisons in biology

Structural formula of sambunigrin - poisonous hydrogen cyanide can be released from the molecule.

Biologically occurring poisons are secondary plant substances that serve as protection against phytophages . Such food poisons can be formed and accumulated in all parts of the plant . Some, but not all of these food poisons can be destroyed by heating or boiling, so that otherwise inedible plants can be used both as food for humans and in animal husbandry. For example, the raw berries of the black elder are inedible for humans as well as for many animal species. Higher doses of raw, unripe berries can lead to symptoms of intoxication such as stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhea, and chills in humans. The kernels of elderberries, for example, contain the cyanogenic glycosides sambunigrin and vicianin , which decompose when the berries are heated.

American pokeweed and the above-ground parts of the potato plant also contain various poisons. Ricin is a very effective food poison . The naturally occurring food poisons are sometimes used in medicine and for other purposes. The aboveground parts of milkweed plants act as a rodenticide .

Human reception

It is estimated that the average American ingests 1,500 mg of such natural pesticides per day. The mass fraction of natural pesticides in the total mass of ingested pesticides is 99.99%.

Food poisons in technology

Technical food poisons are pesticides used by humans , which become effective in the pest after ingestion . Depending on the pest, a distinction is made between insecticide , molluscicide , acaricide or rodenticide .

A well-known example of a food poison is DDT , which, however, also acts as a contact poison.

The effect of the food poison is not only aimed at ensuring that the bait that contains the poison is eaten by the animal to be killed. In addition, it is the aim of their use that the poisoned food z. B. is carried by ants into their nests and fed to the queen and the brood there, which are also poisoned. For this purpose, poisons are mostly used, which only have a fatal effect after multiple ingestion.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Food poisons. In: Lexicon of Biology. Spectrum Academic Publishing House, Heidelberg 1999. (online)
  2. ↑ Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety: List of substances of the federal government and the federal states: Category "Plants and plant parts". Springer-Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-319-05807-8 , pp. 134-135. (PDF full text) .
  3. ↑ Klaus Wachter, Claudia Sarkady: The big book of teething troubles : recognize, treat, prevent. Compact Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8174-6078-6 , p. 250.
  4. ↑ Robert Ebermann, Ibrahim Elmadfa: Textbook food chemistry and nutrition. Springer-Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-7091-0211-4 , p. 428.
  5. ↑ AV Hirner, H. Rehage, M. Sulkowski: Environmental Geochemistry: Origin, Mobility and Analysis of Pollutants in the Pedosphere . Springer-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-642-93711-8 , pp. 7 ( google.de ).
  6. ↑ Bruce N. Aimes, Margie Profet, Lois Swirsky Gold: Dietary pesticides (99.99% all natural) * . tape 87 , 1990, pp. 7777-7781 , doi : 10.1073 / pnas.87.19.7777 .

literature

  • W. Franke: Crop science. 1st edition. Thieme Verlag, 1976 (7th edition, revised by R. Lieberei and Ch. Reisdorff, 2007, ISBN 978-3-13-530407-6 )
  • M. Ludwig, H. Gebhardt, HW Ludwig, S. Schmidt-Fischer: New animals & plants in the native nature. Recognize and identify immigrant species. BLV, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-405-15776-5 .