Toxic Constituents of Plant Foodstuffs

Book excerpt: Toxic Constituents of Plant Foodstuffs focuses on toxic substances in foods of plant origin, including protease inhibitors, hemagglutinins, goitrogens, cyanogens, saponins, gossypol, lathyrogens, and allergens. The book also considers adventitious toxic factors in processed foods and miscellaneous toxic factors such as stimulants and depressants, hypoglycemic agents, toxic amino acids, metal-binding constituents, and hepatotoxins. This volume is organized into 13 chapters and begins with an overview of protease inhibitors, including their distribution in the plant kingdom, physical and chemical properties, and mechanism of interaction with proteases. The next chapters focus on the adventitious introduction of toxic factors into processed plant foods; the inactivation of the trypsin inhibitor and hemagglutinin found in legumes by cooking; and the extraction of a nontoxic, edible starch from cycads. The reader is also introduced to lathyrism, the toxicity of agglutinins, occurrence of goitrogens in thioglucoside-containing plants, and dietary sources of cyanogen. This book will be of interest and value to food scientists who are concerned with the safety of food supply and public health officials tasked with enforcing regulations necessary to ensure the safety of a particular food.