Badly stored food linked to cancer, insanity
Jul 20, 2011
AGRICULTURAL experts at Kawanda are developing fungi-resistant crops that would reduce liver cancer and mental illness among Ugandans.
By Josephine Maseruka
AGRICULTURAL experts at Kawanda are developing fungi-resistant crops that would reduce liver cancer and mental illness among Ugandans.
Research has shown that most Ugandans risk developing liver cancer and mental illness due to consumption of poorly dried and stored grains like maize, groundnuts and rice.
Dr. Geoffrey Arinaitwe, a research officer at the National Agricultural Biotechnology Centre at Kawanda, said poorly dried grains are attacked by fungi, which produce toxins called aflatoxins.
Aflatoxins cause the contamination at harvest or storage stages.
“High-level aflatoxin exposure produces an acute premature death of cells, leading to liver cancer. The cancer manifests itself by hemorrhage, edema, alteration in digestion, metabolism and mental change,†he stated.
Arinaitwe said crops were susceptible to infection by the fungi following prolonged exposure to a high humidity environment or damage from stressful conditions such as drought.
Other crops that are frequently affected include sorghum, pearl millet, wheat, peanut, soybean, sunflower and cotton. Spices like chilli, peppers, ginger, turmeric and coriander are also affected.
He explained that contamination can be detected in grains, which have mould and in groundnuts, which have peeling-off husks or broken grains. Sour nuts are also sign that they are poisonous.
“Once contaminated, even if the by-products are cooked, the toxins will remain. If we succeed with groundnuts, we shall venture into other cereals,†he said.
A food researcher at Makerere University, Archileo Kaaya, in a study last year, disclosed that groundnuts and maize, on which most of the people in Uganda depend, are contaminated.
He said foods sold in markets across Uganda are contaminated above the level recommended by the World Health Organisation.
AGRICULTURAL experts at Kawanda are developing fungi-resistant crops that would reduce liver cancer and mental illness among Ugandans.
Research has shown that most Ugandans risk developing liver cancer and mental illness due to consumption of poorly dried and stored grains like maize, groundnuts and rice.
Dr. Geoffrey Arinaitwe, a research officer at the National Agricultural Biotechnology Centre at Kawanda, said poorly dried grains are attacked by fungi, which produce toxins called aflatoxins.
Aflatoxins cause the contamination at harvest or storage stages.
“High-level aflatoxin exposure produces an acute premature death of cells, leading to liver cancer. The cancer manifests itself by hemorrhage, edema, alteration in digestion, metabolism and mental change,†he stated.
Arinaitwe said crops were susceptible to infection by the fungi following prolonged exposure to a high humidity environment or damage from stressful conditions such as drought.
Other crops that are frequently affected include sorghum, pearl millet, wheat, peanut, soybean, sunflower and cotton. Spices like chilli, peppers, ginger, turmeric and coriander are also affected.
He explained that contamination can be detected in grains, which have mould and in groundnuts, which have peeling-off husks or broken grains. Sour nuts are also sign that they are poisonous.
“Once contaminated, even if the by-products are cooked, the toxins will remain. If we succeed with groundnuts, we shall venture into other cereals,†he said.
A food researcher at Makerere University, Archileo Kaaya, in a study last year, disclosed that groundnuts and maize, on which most of the people in Uganda depend, are contaminated.
He said foods sold in markets across Uganda are contaminated above the level recommended by the World Health Organisation.