ABSTRACT
Cassava has great potential to alleviate the hunger and starvation that accompanies famines. In Africa, famine is superimposed on a pre existing foundation of chronic under-nutrition and nutrient deficiency. The reduction in food intake associated with famines causes its victims first to lose their subcutaneous fat stores, followed by the loss of deeper fat stores. Under-nutrition resulting from famines produces its deleterious consequences in a number of ways. People respond behaviorally to the decreased energy intakes by decreasing their energy expenditures. The synergism of under-nutrition and infection may also be influenced by cassava use. Cassava use may have a less direct effect on susceptibility to infectious disease. Cassava is one of the very few of the food crops in which the content of cyanide can, under certain conditions of nutritional deprivation, create additional problems. Cassava’s toxicity is the result of the endogenous presence of the cyanogenic glucosides linamarin and lotustralin, biological precursors of cyanide, in all parts of the plant.
