Ackee poisoning: relationship to vomiting sickness (abstract only)

ABSTRACT

The toxic effect of Hypoglycin A, a polypeptide isolated from the ackee, on animals is presented. The outstanding features are vomiting, drowsiness,coma and death, accompanied by hypo-glycaemia and low level glycogen. These findings resemble those observed in some cases of so-called "vomiting sickness" of Jamaica. Animal experiments have also shown that rats fed with a low protein high carbohydrate "Jamaican diet" were more sensitive to Hypoglycin A than rats on a normal diet. The significance of these experiments will be discussed. The final proof that "vomiting sickness" could be due to ackee poisoning would be to identify the ackee toxin from the "vomiting sickness" patients by chemical, biochemical and biological methods. (AU)