Ackee fruit

Larson J, Vender R, Camuto P. Cholestatic jaundice due to ackee fruit poisoning. Am J Gastroenterol 1994 89(9) 1577-8. 

Lebo DB, Ditto AM, Boxer MB, Grammer LC, Bonagura VR, Roberts M. Anaphylaxis to ackee fruit. J Allergy Chn Immunol 1996 98(5 Pt l) 997-8. 

EMA aciduria maybe associated with several other inherited and acquired conditions, including (1) glutaric acidemia type II (some cases are actually labeled to have ethylmalonic adipic aciduria),(2) disorders of the intramitochon-drial flavin adenine dinucleotide pathway, (3) mitochondrial respiratory chain disorders, and (4) ethylmalonic encephalopathy. Jamaican vomiting sickness (due to ingestion of unripe ackee fruit containing the poison hypoglycin A) and ifosfamide treatment represent two additional causes of ethylmalonic aciduria. 

A number of other inhibitors of fatty acid oxidation have been reported in the literature [81,86, 140-142] including 2-bromopalmitoyl-CoA, bromoacetyl-CoA and S-methanesulphonyl-CoA decanoylcamitine, all inhibitors of carnitine palmitoyltransferase, 4-pentenoic acid, an inhibitor of 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase and acetoacetyl-CoA thiolase, and hypoglycin, a compound isolated from the Jamaican ackee fruit (Blighia sapida) which potently inhibits several acyl-CoA dehydrogenases. The toxicity associated with these compounds or their expense have precluded further development as hypoglycaemic agents. 

Hypoglycin A is the toxic principle of the unripe ackee fruit (fruits of the tree Blighia sapida E 5.5.3). In animals it undergoes oxidative deamination and decarboxylation to (X-(methylenecyclopropyl)-acetic acid, which strongly inhibits the -oxidation of fatty acids. 

Some toxic amino acids can be partially removed from food or feed by leaching. For example, the content of canavanine in Jack bean seeds can be reduced from 50 to 8 g/kg by soaking, depending on the ratio of water to extracted material and temperature. The procedure for the preparation of immature seeds of ackee fruit is based on the removal of the pericarp and cooking, which reduces the hypoglycin concentration to an acceptable level of about 1 g/kg. 

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