Toxins

This chapter addresses alkaloids, saponins, glucosinolates, cyanogens, plant phenols, lecithins, toxic amino acids, biogenic amines, marine toxins, mushroom toxins, and other toxic compounds. It focuses on the changes of these compounds during processing and storage and on occurrence of these substances in raw materials and foods. The individual alkaloids vary considerably in toxicity, with lupanine and sparteine being the most toxic lupin alkaloids reported and 13-hydroxylupanine only one-tenth as toxic. Caffeine is probably the most widely used drug, and there is a plethora of information, much of which is conflicting, about its physiological effects, toxicity, and link to cardiovascular disease. Cyanides are rapidly absorbed in the intestinal system; the symptoms after intoxication with a lethal dose are peripheral numbness and light-headedness, followed by mental confusion and stupor, cyanosis, convulsions, and terminal coma. Antinutritional and toxic effects of glucosinolates and their breakdown products in man are difficult to identify.