Warning: Extremely toxic substance when eating bamboo shoots.

When cyanide toxins in bamboo shoots enter the body, they combine with digestive enzymes to form highly toxic hydrocyanic acid, causing headaches, vomiting, difficulty breathing, hypotension, coma, seizures, and other symptoms.

Bamboo shoots are a widely consumed food. However, some types of bamboo shoots, especially fresh ones, can cause poisoning and even lead to death.

According to documents from the Food Safety Administration, the toxin in bamboo shoots is cyanide. Cyanide is an acid radical (-CN) whose compounds include salts or acids, and it is highly toxic; the lethal dose via the digestive tract is 1 mg per kilogram of body weight. Fresh bamboo shoots contain very high levels of cyanide, approximately 230 mg per kilogram of bamboo shoots. When bamboo shoots containing high levels of cyanide are consumed, under the action of digestive enzymes, cyanide is converted into hydrocyanic acid (HCN), an extremely toxic substance to the body.

Poisoning usually occurs a few minutes to a few hours after eating bamboo shoots, depending on the severity. Severe poisoning will present with early symptoms such as headache, vomiting, difficulty breathing, confusion, hypotension, coma, seizures, and shock. The breath may have a foul odor. Mild poisoning may occur a few hours after eating. When the above symptoms occur, the patient should be immediately taken to the nearest medical facility for emergency treatment and prompt notification to the authorities.

To avoid poisoning from eating bamboo shoots, the Food Safety Administration recommends that people soak and boil bamboo shoots multiple times, changing the water after each boiling, and remember to open the lid when the water boils. If you suspect the bamboo shoots are poisonous, absolutely do not eat them.

According to VnExpress