It is safe to eat raw bamboo shoots, but is it a good idea?
Bamboo shoots contain a plant called taxiphyllin.Cyanide poisoning can occur after ingestion.Toxicity caused by exposure to hydrogen cyanide gas has never been reported.
The aim is to describe the poisoning of eight people who were exposed to HCN in a well containing bamboo shoots.
A group of patients entered a well containing bamboo shoots and lost consciousness due to a series of bungled rescue attempts.Two patients died after rescue.Four other patients recovered after suffering acidosis.After the event, the remaining two regained consciousness.The air study helped confirm the diagnosis.
All patients had acidosis with normal oxygenation.After about 18 h of the incident, blood cyanide levels ranged from 2.66 to 3.30 mcg/ml.Oxygen and sulfur dioxide were found in the ambient air study.The instrument wasn't able to detect HCN.HCN and sulfur dioxide were found in the ambient air at 10 and 7.5 parts per million, respectively.The bamboo shoots had a range of Cyanide content from 39 to 434 grams per kilogram in the wet shoots.
This group of patients developed acidosis and altered consciousness after exposure, and cyanide was confirmed in all of them.HCN was found in the air of the well containing bamboo shoots.
There have been two deaths from mass acute cyanide poisoning.The source of HCN was unusual as it was produced from a bamboo shoot.