Anti-nutritional Factors, Natural Toxicants, Food Allergens & Toxicology

Scilliroside is a toxic natural bufadienolide cardiac glycoside extracted from the bulbs of red squill (Drimia maritima / Urginea maritima, historically referred to as sea onion / red onion). It is a potent rodenticide and botanical insecticide that causes violent convulsive cardiovascular collapse in rodents while being less dangerous to livestock because vomiting is induced in non-rodents.

Mushroom toxicology:

• Amanita phalloides, commonly known as the 'Death Cap', is the deadliest known poisonous mushroom, responsible for the majority of fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide.
• It contains potent amatoxins (octapeptides) and phallotoxins that inhibit RNA polymerase II, causing irreversible acute hepatic and renal necrosis.
• Ganoderma lucidum is a medicinal mushroom, and Auricularia species are edible jelly fungi.

Methods for elimination of anti-nutritional factors in legumes:

• Germination activates endogenous enzymes like phytases and polyphenol oxidases, significantly reducing phytic acid, tannins, and protease inhibitors.
• Boiling and thermal cooking denature heat-labile antinutrients including trypsin inhibitors, chymotrypsin inhibitors, and lectins (hemagglutinins).
• Simple dehydration or drying merely removes water to preserve food; it does not inactivate or leach heat-labile or water-soluble anti-nutritional factors.
• Soaking dissolves and leaches water-soluble oligosaccharides and phytates, while dehulling/milling removes outer seed coats rich in tannins.

Structural classification of biogenic amines:

• Tryptamine is formed by decarboxylation of tryptophan and contains a heterocyclic indole ring structure (a bicyclic ring with a benzene fused to a pyrrole containing a nitrogen atom), making it a heterocyclic biogenic amine (along with histamine).
• Spermine is an aliphatic polyamine.
• Phenylethylamine contains a simple homocyclic benzene ring (aromatic amine, not heterocyclic).
• Cadaverine (1,5-diaminopentane) is an aliphatic diamine formed by decarboxylation of lysine.