تسجيل الدخول

تسجيل

Blighia sapida

المؤلف:  Sue Jickells , Adam Negrusz (Editors)

المصدر:  Clarkes Analytical Forensic Toxicology

الجزء والصفحة:  122

2026-09-28

27

Blighia sapida

Jamaican vomiting sickness affects mainly young children and is a form of toxic hepatitis associated with ingestion of the arilli of the unripe fruit of the ackee tree, Blighia sapida. The ackee tree was imported into the West Indies but is native to West Africa, and deaths among children have been reported there. The disease presents with severe vomiting and hypoglycaemia followed by neurological symptoms, which include convulsions, coma and death.

The toxin responsible is hypoglycin, L (S)-2-amino 3-(2-methylidenecyclopropyl) propionic acid. Seeds of the common sycamore (Acer pseudo platanus) and of the lychee fruit (Litchi sinensis) also contain hypoglycin. Most of the metabolic effects of hypoglycin are caused by its metabolite, methylenecyclopropylacetyl-coenzyme-A (MCPA-CoA). Sherratt (1995) has reviewed the biochemical mechanism of hypoglycin in detail.

No methods are available that detect hypoglycin in body fluids to confirm a suspected intoxication. However, hypoglycin exposure may be confirmed indirectly by measuring dicarboxylic acids in urine (ethylmalonic, glutaric and adipic acids) by GC with flame-ionisation detection after derivatisation with bis(trimethylsilyl) trifluoroacetamide (Medaetal.1999).