Kitchen Tox: beware of the durian

ThamKC/shutterstock.com 3 out of 5 stars Durian Induced Hyperkalaemia. Leo CLB et al. Med J Malaysia 2011 Mar;66:66-67. Full Text Durian, a spiky, coconut-sized fruit native to Malaysia and grown throughout southeast Asia, is known for its distinctive aroma that some have compared to ripe Limburger cheese. The Oxford Companion to Food notes that others have compared the smell of durian to “the civet cat, sewage, stale vomit, onions, and cheese; while one disaffected visitor to Indonesia declared that the eating of the flesh was not much different from having to consume used surgical swabs.” Anthony Bourdain has remarked that after eating durian “Your breath will smell as if you’d been French-kissing your dead grandmother.” Yet many people, especially those from southeast Asia, love durian, and when it’s in season will spend much of their time-consuming fruit after fruit. This can cause problems much worse that halitosis. In fact, the custardy durian flesh contains even more potassium per 100g than bananas. This is usually not a problem for those with health kidneys, but can cause life-threatening hyperkalemia in people with renal insufficiency. This case report, from Malaysia, describes a 48-year-old woman with diabetes mellitus and end-stage renal failure requiring hemodialysis who suffered a cardiac arrest after eating a “moderate” amount of durian. Her potassium was 9.1 mmol/L and her EKG showed the sine wave pattern typi...
Source: The Poison Review - Category: Toxicology Authors: Tags: Medical durian hyperkalemia kitchen toxicology potassium Source Type: news