TY - JOUR
T1 - Plants with neurotoxic potential in undernourished subjects
AU - Palmer, V. S.
AU - Tshala-Katumbay, D. D.
AU - Spencer, P. S.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Masson SAS
PY - 2019/12
Y1 - 2019/12
N2 - The consumption by humans of plants with potential to induce neurological disorders is widespread, but overt disease surfaces only when the subject's toxic threshold is exceeded. Excessive intake arising from food dependency in the setting of hunger, chronic undernutrition, vitamin deficiency, inadequate detoxication, or other individual susceptibility, can trigger acute encephalopathy (lychee, ackee fruits), sub-acute spastic paraparesis (grasspea, cassava root/leaves) or ataxic neuropathy (cassava root flour). While these disorders are very rarely encountered in high-income countries, they are not only common among impoverished populations but also often occur as outbreaks that impact a significant proportion of an affected community. Unfamiliarity with the adverse effects of plant toxins has sometimes led to the mistaken attribution of nutritional neurotoxic disease to a neurotropic viral or synthetic pesticidal etiology. The combination of human population growth, food and water insecurity, poverty and, with climate change, increased dependency on environmentally tolerant plants with neurotoxic potential, predictably may result in an increased prevalence of nutritional neurotoxic disorders, especially in certain parts of Africa and Asia.
AB - The consumption by humans of plants with potential to induce neurological disorders is widespread, but overt disease surfaces only when the subject's toxic threshold is exceeded. Excessive intake arising from food dependency in the setting of hunger, chronic undernutrition, vitamin deficiency, inadequate detoxication, or other individual susceptibility, can trigger acute encephalopathy (lychee, ackee fruits), sub-acute spastic paraparesis (grasspea, cassava root/leaves) or ataxic neuropathy (cassava root flour). While these disorders are very rarely encountered in high-income countries, they are not only common among impoverished populations but also often occur as outbreaks that impact a significant proportion of an affected community. Unfamiliarity with the adverse effects of plant toxins has sometimes led to the mistaken attribution of nutritional neurotoxic disease to a neurotropic viral or synthetic pesticidal etiology. The combination of human population growth, food and water insecurity, poverty and, with climate change, increased dependency on environmentally tolerant plants with neurotoxic potential, predictably may result in an increased prevalence of nutritional neurotoxic disorders, especially in certain parts of Africa and Asia.
KW - Ackee
KW - Cassava
KW - Global public health
KW - Grasspea
KW - Lychee
KW - Malnutrition
KW - Tropical neurology
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85072248552&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.neurol.2019.07.015
DO - 10.1016/j.neurol.2019.07.015
M3 - Review article
C2 - 31542178
AN - SCOPUS:85072248552
SN - 0035-3787
VL - 175
SP - 631
EP - 640
JO - Revue Neurologique
JF - Revue Neurologique
IS - 10
ER -