Health Care Article

PETALING JAYA: Two local medical experts give their opinions on the case of a Malaysian been diagnosed as suffering from “food poisoning” after eating starfruits in Shenzhen, China.

Prof Mustaffa Ali Mohd, of the Pharmacology Department of the Medical Faculty, Universiti Malaya (UM), told theSun the common starfruit (averhoacarambola) is not known to contain neurotoxins that may cause adverse neurological complications when consumed.

However, he said the fruit has certain biological compounds called oxalates that can cause the formation of stones in certain organs in the body. “When oxalates bind with calcium and other mineral salts in the human body they could calcify (solidify) to form stones in certain internal organs such
as the kidneys, as well as the gall and urinary bladders,” According to news reports on Monday, the 66-year-old Malaysian, Tan Gong Sean, a retired Chinese school headmaster from Butterworth, and more than a dozen Chinese locals were in comatose in a hospital in Shenzhen, after eating the popular tropical fruit, also known as coromandel gooseberry or fivefingers.

Two other locals were said to have died after eating the fruit which an American health website, www.pubmed.gov, claims contains neurotoxins that can cause severe neurological complications, especially in patients, with chronic renal disease. However, Mustaffa, who also heads the Shimadzu-UMMC Centre for Xenobiotic Studies and is a deputy dean of the UM medical faculty, said he is not aware of such toxins being present in the fruit or of any such study published in any pharmacological or medical journals. (more…)