In 1979 , a catering wrongdoing led to 78 schoolchildren being poisoned by their old friend , the potato .
Having recently regress to a school in South London following a holiday , a big figure of boys dead fell sick with symptoms from vomiting and diarrhea , to fever , and even becoming comatose , depression of the nervous system , and , in the most serious cases , " episodes of spasmodic twitching " .
" These male child also showed signs of peripheral , circulatory collapse , even when dehydration was only slight , " doctors wrote in aBMJ Case reportpublished the same year . They reported that " little " blood was lose in the stool or vomit of the boys , despite the six day that symptoms continued in some of them .
The reason of the malady was quickly identified : they had all eat boiled potatoes some 14 60 minutes previously .
" Potatoes are such a common feature of the Western diet that most people are surprised to learn that they are the green goods of a poisonous plant life , " the team write . " In fact , potato stems and leaves moderate a serial publication of alkaloidal glycosides , term solanines , which are extremely toxic . "
They cite other cases , including one Isle of Man who was poison after settle to apply the leaves and shoots of potatoes as a vegetable in their own right .
The principal hazard , however , comes from eating murphy after they have bend green , which happened here because the caterers had used a purse of spud leftover from the previous term . gratefully , they all recovered following treatment in infirmary , though some of them had a jolting time and hallucinated during their stay .
" Greening and sprouting occur when potato Tuber are expose to light or are stored in adverse condition , and these processes are connect with the production of the alkaloids . ab initio , this occurs at the land site of increased metabolic activity , such as the " eyes " ; but eventually , solanines can be discover in the flesh of the tuber , " the squad explained in their newspaper .
" luckily , few people cook green or spud white potato because of their appearance and their bitter , unpleasant tasting ; so that in praxis solanine toxic condition seems to be rare except in times of food dearth . "
