North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Richard Moyer <ramoyer@gmail.com>]

Glad to read the pawpaw discussion.
There appear to be several things here.
---Among my six kids, one has a food allergy to pawpaws.  We forage
widely and she has no other known food allergies.  Same was noted in
one of my students during a taste-test of 30 local pawpaw selections.
Have heard others, such as Greg Reighard, Clemson Horticulturalist,
note this food allergy to pawpaws, perhaps occurring at higher levels
than some other fruits.  One symptom of food allergy can be nausea.

---Lucky, agreed that your 'cookie caper' sounds like a Staph (or
other) enterotoxin, instead of a food infection, due to the rapidity
of symptoms.  If my memory can be trusted,  S. aureus can grow at
cooler and warmer temps than most other pathogenic cells, and some
enterotoxins are heat stable, enough to survive cookie cooking times.
If only the FDA had swooped in, imagine the foods recalled during the
investigation, and the growers/processors bankrupt!

---As for warnings of Parkinson's-like symptoms, if I recall
correctly, that was overblown and Kentucky State has tempered their
warnings re: eating pawpaw flesh.  I'd be glad to be set straight on
this, and to read any published, peer-reviewed research on
pawpaw-fruit neurotoxins.  Did a quick Google search and found this
discussion: http://www.cloudforest.com/cafe/forum/63704.html that
notes native folk with Parkinson's-like symptoms who consumed tea from
twigs of pawpaw relatives.  While at Purdue, Jerry McLaughlin found
that pawpaw acetogenins are orders of magnitude higher in twigs, young
leaves and roots, compared to the ripe fruit.  If some started eating
apple seeds or twigs in quantity, perhaps we'd hear warnings on eating
apples, though for different toxins in their seeds than pawpaw family
fruit.

Richard Moyer
SW VA