Re: Famine foods (was cycad)

My ex deliberately committed suicide by eating raw (?) Cassava while living in Mexico. I wasn't there but believe it took at least a week, maybe longer. 
Maria Guzman




On 8/27/07, Tony and Moira <tomory@xtra.co.nz> wrote:
I obviously did not pursue my research far enough as I missed this. This is not the only potentially poisonous plant which yields an edible carbohydrate by special processing. The one commonly quoted is Cassava (Manihot) which contains a cyanogenetic glycoside. This if not carefully got rid of can give rise in the eater to dangerous levels of cyanide which can cause severe nervous diseases and sometimes goiter. Nevertheless it is widely grown and used especially in South America and parts of Africa. It has always amazed me that primitive people have managed to hit on ways of getting round the poison in such crops. I suppose for many communities it was a case of hunger 
driving them to continue experimenting until they got it right.
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