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Cucumber poisoning: fresh, salted, pickled
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Among the possible toxic effects of food origin, experts note poisoning with cucumbers - fresh, lightly salted, salted, canned.
Causes of the poisoning with cucumbers
The main causes of poisoning with fresh cucumbers are exceeding the maximum permissible level of content (350-400 mg / kg) of nitrogenous salts, which can accumulate in all parts of the plant, including fruits. This applies to both greenhouse cucumbers and ground cucumbers. Poisoning with nitrates and nitrites is noted when too much nitrogen-containing mineral fertilizers are introduced into the soil. [1]
Nitrogen is needed for the production of chlorophyll (the green pigment in the leaves), which is responsible for converting sunlight into useful plant energy. Most nitrates accumulate in cucumbers when ammonium nitrate (ammonium nitrate) or sodium nitrate (sodium nitrate) is used; slightly less - if the plants are fertilized with urea (carbamide) or ammonium sulfate solution. [2]
In addition, toxic substances of pesticides (used to destroy pests of vegetable crops) and lead (if the land plots where cucumbers are grown are located near highways) can accumulate in fresh cucumbers.
Lightly salted (pickled) and pickled and cucumbers are prepared using fermentation: sodium chloride (table salt) contained in the brine leaches sugars from cucumbers, Ph decreases, and the production of lactic acid begins by heterofermentative lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc, Lactococccus). This process explains the characteristic taste and rather long shelf life of the product.
If salting occurs without sealing, it preserves the product, preventing the growth of rotting microbes and molds, a combination of salt and lactic acid.
Subject to the required level of salt and acid and the rules of preparation, lightly salted and pickled cucumbers are unlikely to deteriorate, and food poisoning with pickles, as well as poisoning with lightly salted cucumbers, is quite rare.
Although their damage is not excluded due to the growth of yeast and mold fungi, due to an excessive amount of slime-forming bacteria Leuconostoc (falling on cucumbers from the soil), as well as bacteria Acetobacteraceae, which inhibit lactic acid bacteria and lead to acetic acid fermentation (souring). [3], [4]
Pickled cucumbers are different from fermented cucumbers: they use acetic acid when pickling and must be sterilized. When the rules for their conservation are not followed, the growth of Clostridium botulinum, a microorganism that causes such a deadly bacterial food poisoning as botulism, can occur . [5], [6]
Risk factors
Risk factors for cucumber poisoning should be read, such as:
- the use of greenhouse products during the off-season;
- excessive use of nitrogen fertilizers (especially when growing vegetables in greenhouses);
- insufficient primary processing of vegetables before salting or preservation;
- violation of technologies, including the level of acid, temperature conditions (below + 120 ° С) and pressure during sterilization.
Pathogenesis
In case of poisoning with nitrates contained in fresh or lightly salted (salted) cucumbers, the pathogenesis of toxic effects is associated with the fact that even in the oral cavity - with the help of salivary reductase enzymes - they are restored to nitrites; further in the gastrointestinal tract (under the influence of the intestinal microbiota), metabolism continues with the formation of nitric oxide (NO). Nitrites quickly enter the bloodstream, and an excess level of NO leads to nitrosylation - the covalent incorporation of its nitrosyl fragment into the oxyhemoglobin molecules of erythrocytes (oxygen-carrying hemoglobin). The iron of oxyhemoglobin is oxidized, and as a result, it turns into methemoglobin, which cannot bind and transport oxygen, and under conditions of methemoglobinemia, the body does not receive enough oxygen. [7], [8], [9]
The mechanism of poisoning with canned cucumbers (including pickled ones) is the effect on the body of botulinum toxin, a botulinum neurotoxin produced by the anaerobic bacteria Clostridium botulinum, which acts on the peripheral and central nervous system, which is manifested in blocking the transmission of nerve impulses to the muscles. [10], [11], [12]
Symptoms of the poisoning with cucumbers
In acute nitrate poisoning, the first signs appear after about four to six hours in the form of general weakness, dizziness, nausea, and repeated vomiting.
In full, the symptoms of hypoxia with such poisoning with fresh or pickled cucumbers of moderate or severe degree are manifested by shortness of breath, heart palpitations, decreased blood pressure, pallor and cyanosis of the skin (cyanosis), confusion (with its possible loss), convulsions, heart rhythm disturbances.
When eating cucumbers with a high content of lead (which accumulates most in the skin and seeds), nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain and constipation occur.
Poisoning with moldy pickles can present with the characteristic symptoms of food poisoning .
Botulinum toxin poisoning differs - in addition to gastrointestinal manifestations - in the presence of ophthalmic symptoms (diplopia, blurred vision), as well as progressive muscle weakness. For details, see - Botulism - Symptoms . [13]
Complications and consequences
The consequences of poisoning with nitrate-containing cucumbers are suffocation. Complications of botulism are manifested by shortness of breath, constant weakness, and rapid fatigability.
In severe cases and inadequate treatment (untimely administration of anti-botulinum serum) botulism can be fatal.
Diagnostics of the poisoning with cucumbers
All details in publications:
Analyzes may include: a general blood test, bacteriological analysis (culture) of blood serum for intestinal infections, a blood test for antibodies to pathogens of intestinal infections, a coprogram.
Differential diagnosis
In case of any poisoning, differential diagnosis is carried out with acute intestinal infections: caused by bacteria of the Shigella dysenteriae family: dysentery; salmonellosis (caused by the bacteria Salmonella enterica) [14], [15]or yersiniosis (which is a consequence of infection of the gastrointestinal tract with bacteria Yersinia enterocolitica) [16], [17]etc.
You should also distinguish between indigestion (in the form of abdominal discomfort, flatulence and diarrhea), which can be one of the possible side effects of eating too much pickles (salted, pickled or pickled cucumbers).
In addition, some people with hypertension have high blood pressure after eating high-salt foods, as excess fluid retention can increase blood plasma volume.
Who to contact?
Treatment of the poisoning with cucumbers
For details on how first aid is provided for poisoning with cucumbers, read the material - Help with food poisoning
As in the case of poisoning, correctly rinse the stomach with water, sodium bicarbonate solution, etc., see - Gastric lavage
For the purpose of detoxification, sorbents are necessarily used: activated carbon or Polysorb. For more information see - Tablets for poisoning [18]
It is also imperative to fight the loss of fluid - dehydration and restore the balance of electrolytes, for which solutions of Regidron, Oralit, Solana, mineral water without gas, a solution of salt with sugar (half a tablespoon of salt and a tablespoon of sugar per liter of boiled water) are used orally.
In severe cases, in intensive care units, they resort to intravenous administration of special rehydration solutions. In addition, in symptomatic intensive care for poisoning, drugs of various pharmacological groups are used. Detailed information in the articles:
Prevention
To avoid poisoning with fresh cucumbers, it is worth refusing to use "winter" cucumbers grown in greenhouses. Or check the level of nitrate content in them.
Seasonal cucumbers are recommended to be soaked in cold water with lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. Peeling cucumbers is considered a useful precaution.
All fruits for pickling, pickling or canning should be thoroughly washed and soaked in cold water.
If in a jar with canned pickles or pickled cucumbers the brine (marinade) has become cloudy, the color of the cucumbers themselves has changed, or they have become soft, such a product should not be used. The swelling of the lid testifies to the spoilage of canned (rolled) cucumbers.
Forecast
With a mild degree of poisoning, as well as with proper treatment of moderately severe cucumber poisoning, the prognosis is favorable. But in the case of botulism, the prognosis may be unfavorable.