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Tag: aflatoxin

  • Firm to curb aflatoxin in maize, groundnut

    A firm, Harvestfield Industries Limited, has moved to curb aflatoxin in maize that forced regulators to confiscate grain and prevent its entrance into the market.

    Aflatoxins are poisonous and cancer-causing molds that can lead to stunting in children and severe health problems in adults.

    They are found in improperly stored commodities, such as maize, cassava, millet, rice, sorghum, and wheat.

    According to experts, aflatoxin, a toxin caused by fungi, Aspergillusflavus, and Parasiticus Fungus, is produced as a by-product of the metabolism of the fungi that thrives in farm produce because of high moisture content.

    Maize and groundnut are particularly susceptible to aflatoxin accumulation, but crops such as oilseeds, cassava, yam, rice and others can be affected as well.

    It has been a major challenge to the  cereals production value chain and affects the fortunes of farmers.

    A statement from Harvestfield Industries Limited said it has embarked on a nationwide farmers sensitisation on how to apply aflasafe® product for effective control of aflatoxin in maize and groundnut .

    To create national impact, the company has  constituted  seven technical teams which comprise scientists from the  International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Federal Department of Agriculture (FDA), National Agricultural Quarantine Services (NAQS),  and Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA)  as well as  agricultural extension officers from states and local government areas in the six geo-political regions.

  • Rejected abroad, ‘kings’ at home

    Rejected abroad, ‘kings’ at home

    • How Nigerians consume contaminated food rejected in European countries

    CAUTION ALERT. That was the mood triggered when the European Union banned several food items originating from Nigeria last year.  Prior to the ban, cases of food poisoning leading to loss of lives were often reported. Last year, a family of six reportedly died after eating contaminated beans cake.

    In 2015 and 2016, the European Union rejected 67 processed and semi-processed foods from Nigeria, citing poor quality, contamination and high levels of chemicals in the preserved products. Food items such as beans, melon seeds, palm oil, bitter leaf, pumpkin, shelled groundnuts and live snails topped the list. The pesticide level of banned beans from Nigeria was said to be between 30.03mg per kg to 4.6mg per kg of Dichlorvos pesticide, while the acceptable residue limit is 0.01mg/kg.

    The chemical contents notwithstanding, Nigerians at home consume these food items with relish. The absence of labeling or inadequate labeling in many cases, render many consumers helpless as they are forced to buy food from the open market without gleaning adequate information on the chemicals used for preservation.

    Findings show that melon, one of the exported food items banned by the European Union, which is a soup delicacy consumed with relished in Nigeria can be compromised by aflatoxins, a toxin produced by certain fungi found on agricultural crops. Contamination of melons has become rampant in recent time as many no longer follow the conventional style of removing melon seeds from its protective shell but rely on ground melon wrapped in cellophane bags purchased in the open market. The melon reacts with the cellophane’s petroleum residue, making it become oxidized over time. This eventually prompts free radicals to be stocked into the melon soup.

    Also, with Nigeria’s haphazard storage system and the long process of transporting food from the farms to ready markets; shelled groundnuts, another exported banned food item consumed in Nigeria, is easily infected with fungi. The fungi react by denaturing the oil.

    Aflatoxin causes infertility, abortions and delayed onset of egg production in birds; a research published by Dr. Oladele Dokun, a veterinary doctor at the Nigeria’s Animal Care Laboratory has shown. Dr. Dokun further said that loss of appetite, skin discoloration or even yellowish pigmentation on the skin can be observed in fish.

    In humans, aflatoxin poisoning, known as aflatoxicosis is said to cause nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and convulsion. Side effects also include a collection of fluid in the lungs (pulmonary edema), a collection of fluid in the brain (cerebral edema), abnormalities of the blood and blood cancer even in children. Bleeding, liver damage and cancer, kidney and heart damage are also listed.

    Sharing a personal experience, Mr. Femi Kusa, a columnist and fellow of the Nigerian Association of Physicians of Natural Medicine recalled how he once ordered 20 litres of fresh palm kernel oil from a region of the country but was shocked to find a white film over it days later.

    “It was fungi! So, I threw the keg and its contents away and proceeded with the detoxification of my system. This sort of thing can make one ill, and an inexperienced doctor would merely provide drugs to suppress symptoms he observes and not uproot the cause(s).

    “If you shrug your shoulders in disbelief, saying our grandparents ate these things and live to ripe, old age, you may not have looked at the other side of the equation. That other side was their diet! Did they consume sugar the way we do today? Did they eat junk foods? Were they stressed up the way we are? Did they not sleep longer and more restfully than we do? Their bodies were not as weak as ours, and probably didn’t collapse as easily as ours do under aflatoxin bombardment”, Mr. Kusa queried, in a piece titled “Aflatoxins in Nigerian Foods”, published in the Natural Remedies for Sound body and Mind column.

    Prof Kolawole Adebayo, a rural development expert, believes the influx of contaminated food in the country is as a result of activities in the informal food sector which produces most of the food consumed.

    “If you want to buy garri, you don’t look for the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) number because you are going to buy it in the local market. However, if you set up a company who wanted to sell packaged Garri, then you need a NAFDAC number. This same rule applies if you want to export outside of Nigeria”.

    Commenting on the banned Nigerian food items in Europe, Prof Adebayo who is also the Project Director, ‘Cassava: Adding Value for Africa Phase II (CAVA II)’, affirmed that once there is evidence of some unwanted bodies in a food crop, the importing nations are within their rights to reject it.

    “I think the problem the agric export sector faces in this instance is that some of the exporters did not get the required certificate, not because the food in themselves were bad. This is a problem of the government per say in terms of how it implement its own programmes and policies and what it allows to go in or come out of this country”, he stressed.

    Emphasizing on the need for active inspection of food items in the open market by regulatory government agencies; he also canvassed for the promotion of radio awareness jingles to inform consumers on the need to be discerning. 

    Also, the President, Federation of Agriculture Commodity Association of Nigeria, Dr. Victor Iyama in a chat with The Nation maintained that contamination of food from Nigeria is not as rampant as orchestrated by the European Union.

    Speaking on unsafe food in the informal sector, he averred that contaminated foods imported are compromised by packaging, based on the presence of preservatives and storage.

    “The few contaminations from the farms would be those that use expired or banned chemicals. That is why we are trying to eject bad packaging, especially hydrocarbon free bags. We are also training farmers to adopt organic fertilizers. Though that has its cost as the yields would be limited, but it is better to have safe food than fantastic yield,” he submitted.

    Faced with the reality that some of the food items in the open markets are infected with rodents; he revealed that plans are underway to embark on radio jingles to educate food vendors in order to prevent possible outbreaks of diseases like Lassa fever.

    Early last year, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh raised a warning, saying Nigerians might be killing themselves in installment through the food they eat.  Food items mentioned included moi-moi wrapped with cellophane and sachet water exposed to the sun at 28 degree Celsius. He also added that many of the cows shepherd by herdsmen are already infected with tuberculosis.

    Asked to speak on efforts made at safeguarding food in Nigeria, Dr Abubakar Jimoh, the Director of Special Duties and Communication, National Agency For Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), told The Nation that the agency  is  working with farmers to ensure that whatever is produced at home will not be rejected by the international community.

    “We have recently established a veterinary department which works closely with Nigerian farmers and even animals that have contaminated drugs administered to them. We do not want them to get into the body of an average consumer”.

    Dr. Jimoh also stated that the agency has been educating farmers on correct chemical applications for food storage in order to prevent food contamination.

    Advising Nigerians on precaution measures, Prof Ngozi Nnam, a former National President of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria tasked Nigerians to consume fruits and vegetables rich in powerful antioxidants in order to suppress the effect of contaminated food.

    “Nature has a way of taking care of contamination but our problem in Nigeria is that we don’t take enough food rich in antioxidants. Vitamin A and C are good sources derived from fruits and vegetables. Nigerians should consider adding fruits and vegetables to their diets as they help protect the body from the harmful effect of contaminants”, she advised.

    Reporting done with support from CodeforAfrica.

     

  • Random thoughts about aflatoxin, pawpaw leaf detox (2)

    I foresee poor pawpaw fruit harvest in the future if, carelessly, Nigeria plunges into pawpaw leaf medicine without putting the horse before the cart. Many people are showing interest in pawpaw leaf tea, juice, vegetable salad garnish and as anti-malarial, among its many natural medicinal uses. In the housing estate where I live in Lagos, it is almost impossible nowadays to find a pawpaw plant growing outside a house with its full complement of leaves. The health food stores hardly stock proprietary powder products of whole papaya (pawpaw) leaves, although the demand for it is growing. All you may easily find are pawpaw tablets or capsules. Papain is one of the proteolytic enzymes found in pawpaw leaves. Where some efforts have been made to ground dry pawpaw leaves into powder, some health store patriots who know about fungi, mold and afflatoxins (see w.w.w.olufemikusa.com) turn away from it as they did orange peel powder not produced under Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP).

    Like all fruiting plants, seeding or tuber producing plants, the pawpaw plant needs its full complement of leaves. The chlorophyll in the green of these leaves helps to capture energy from sunlight and the air and synthesizes from these photo forces the fruits, seeds, nuts e.t.c that we humans enjoy as food or snack.

    That is on the lighter note. On a more serious note, the Nigerian health conscious public has become more aware than before of the medicinal and food values of such previous food wastes as orange peel, banana peel, plantain peel, mango seed kernel and, now, the green leaves of pawpaw.  Hitherto, the fallen, dried leaves of the male pawpaw plant (the non-fruiting one) enjoyed wide-spread reputation among herbalists as an anti-malarial, especially when boiled along with such equally reputable anti-malarials such as lemon grass, orange or lime or lemon peel.

    My family has been aware of the health benefits of pawpaw leaves for more than 10 years, and our experiences with it have filtered from time to time into this column. Last year, I tried to grow about 30 pawpaw seedlings in the small garden of my house. But I lost about 26 of them because of the searing heat of the hot weather at that time. I have not given up. Two of the three seedlings which survived are female, and should soon begin to fruit. The last one is male, and provides me with its leaves as a food supplement which I enjoy now and then.

    So, how can you, too, enjoy pawpaw leaf as a food supplement for detoxification and other health benefits?

    As many people prefer pawpaw leaf juice to eating the leaves with food, saying they are not animals, we may start with the positive impact of the juice on health. So, off to w.w.w.organichealthy.org we go:

    “Papaya leaf juice can be a new and exciting thing to try and/or a perfect substitute for a smoothie or juice recipe not to mention the benefits you get from it are brilliant. It was found through studies that papaya leaf juice and its phytonutrient compounds act in synergy to display a strong antioxidant and immune-boosting impact throughout the body and blood stream. Papain, alkaloids and phenolic compounds are responsible for their positive biological effects.

    The two biologically active components of the papaya are the enzymes papain and chymopapain. They aid with digestion and help treat problems, such as: bloating, indigestion, and other digestion issues. Papaya leaf juice contains alkaloid compounds which help keep your body’s pH balance and reduce illness. The phenolic compounds, Caffeic acid, Chloregenic acid, Quercitin and Keampferol exhibit potent antioxidant effects. Calcium, Potassium, Sodium, Iron and Manganese are very abundant in papaya leaves”.

    To the question of how the body benefits from them w.w.w.organic health.com offers about nine health advantages it confers. These, in its words, are…

    “ONE: Blood platelet production.  Maintaining a high level of blood platelet is extremely important after a serious illness, especially with diseases like Dengue that cause blood platelets to drop to dangerously low levels.The Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine found that papaya leaf juice significantly increases blood platelet production.

    ”TWO: Supports the liver. Due to the potent effect of papaya juice for the liver, it is the basis for the healing of many chronic diseases, especially of the liver, such as jaundice, liver cirrhosis and liver cancer.

    “THREE: Prevents diseases. Papaya leaf juice contains Acetogenin that may be used to prevent many dangerous diseases, including Malaria, Dengue and Cancer. This supports the immune system and naturally fights viral and bacterial invaders in the body.

    ”FOUR: Boosts energy levels. Papaya leaf juice does such a good job of cleansing and healing that drinking it daily can help improve your energy levels and help you get started on the day more quickly. It could possibly be helpful for improving chronic fatigue.

    “FIVE: Supports your digestive system. Papaya leaves contain Papain, Chymopapain, Protease and amylase enzymes that are helpful in properly breaking down proteins, carbs and helpful with digestion. Individuals with digestive disorders may find this juice healing and help regulate the digestive system.This very potent anti-microbial juice reduces inflammation of the stomach lining and heals peptic ulcers by killing harmful bacteria, such as the H.phylori bacteria.This healing process may also reduce colon inflammation form inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs)

    “SIX: minimises inflammation. Inflammation is a common side-effect of illnesses and allergies. The anti-inflammatory properties in papaya leaf juice is helpful for reducing inflammation and possibly also reduce chemotherapy side effects.

    “SEVEN: Regulates menstrual disorders. Drinking papaya leaf juice may regulate PMS symptoms and possibly regulate menstruation cycles due to its very potent healing properties that balance the hormone

    “EIGHT: Protects cardiovascular health. The powerful antioxidants in papaya leaves boost the immune system, greatly improves blood circulation, dilates vessels and protects heart health from strokes and diseases.

    “NINE: Naturally lowers blood sugar levels. Papaya leaf juice improves insulin sensitivity that helps regulate blood sugar levels. The high antioxidant content is helpful to decrease the secondary complications of diabetes such as fatty liver, kidney damage and greatly reduces oxidative stress.

     Aflatoxins

    As stated last Thursday, about 40 per cent of food stuff sold in Nigerian markets are yeast and mold contaminated and, therefore, prone to Aflatoxins poisoning of the many Aflatoxins molecules identified so far, Aflatoxins B1- is the most toxic of animal and human health. In humans, it concentrates in the liver, causing cancer of the liver. It damages the reproductive system, causing infertility in men and women. It damages the Central Nervous System (CNS), causing tremor and even seizures. It unbalances the hormonal system, disrupts immunity and causes HIV/AIDS. There is hardly any damage Aflatoxins do not cause. Mention of them becomes frightening when we remember that yeast, mold and Aflatoxins have been found in Nigerian beans, maize groundnuts (peanuts), dry fish, palm oil, yam and potatoes, melon among other foods. One more I would like to mention today is raw pap. Many women grind maize to make raw pap which they keep in the kitchens or freezers for days or weeks. They cover the top with water. Every morning, they drain the water off and replace it, believing this keeps the raw pap fresh and safe. But if they are careful enough, they would notice some blackish or greenish dots on the water they are draining off. These are signs of yeast or mold presence and possibility of Aflatoxins contamination.

    To flush out Aflatoxins from the body, it would be necessary, first to eliminate yeast and mold. There are many herbs which can do this, sometimes over, say one year, because they multiply rapidly. The Rain Tree group has a proprietary blend of them named MYCO, which I often suggest for myco plasma detoxification when this product and similar ones, are engaged, it is important to add large amounts of anti-oxidants to the therapy.  The reason is that when a large number of these organisms get killed, their “corpses” or debris unload a large amount of free radicals on the system which may initially worsen the condition been treated terms of symptoms escalation. This is known as the “die off effects”. Antioxidants helps to reduce this experience. The next stage, of course, is the support to be given to the organs of detoxification (the liver, lungs, kidneys, skin and bowels) which get damage by high aflatoxins load. If the aflatoxins load they bear is minimised, the possibility exists that they may carry on with their living functions without signs of Aflatoxins distress.  This is where pawpaw leaf juice therapy enters the picture as a readily available, cheap or free medicine.

     

    Cancer 

    According to the website w.w.w.stylecraze.com: “The greatest anti-cancer properties of papaya are concentrated in its leaf extract. According to a research conducted by the Journal of Ethanol pharmacology, papaya leaf juice contains certain enzymes that have dramatic cancer-fighting properties against a wide range of tumours, such as cervix cancer, breast cancer, lungs cancer, and pancreatic cancer without any toxic effects on the body. As a result, papaya leaf extract is often recommended as part of chemotherapy in some parts of the world. By regulating the T-cells, the papaya leaf extract increases the immune system response to cancer. Papaya leaf juice contains about 50 active ingredients, including the karpain compounds that inhibit micro- organisms, such as fungi, worms, parasites, bacteria as well as many forms of cancer cells. It is often used in herbal medicine to remove intestinal worms as it contains tannin that protect the intestine from re-infection from tannin proteins in the lining of the intestinal wall. This way, the worms cannot attach themselves. They are effective in suppressing the cause of typhoid fever. The website w.w.w.communityomtimes.com: “The University of Florida did studies showing that Papaya leaves contains agents that kill cancer, especially cervix, prostate, liver, breast and lung cancer. The more concentrated the tea, the better the result and there are no side effects of any kind. Down through history in Australia, the aborigines have talked about Papaya leaf tea as a great cancer healing agent, also in Asia and other places. Most recommended – taking 10 leaves, cutting them up and boiling them in a half gallon water until it boils down to quart, then left to cool. The tea will be kept in the fridge for two days in a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid. Drink as much as possible.  Papaya leaf tea enhances chemotherapy and helps with chemotherapy side effects.

    “Papaya leaf tea cures thrombocytopenia or low platelets counts which keeps a person from clothing.  There have been many studies showing that papaya leaf tea can increase platelet count in cases of vitamin deficiency, chemotherapy, dengue fever and many more.”

    There are many more health benefits of pawpaw leaf that have not been mentioned here simply not because they are unimportant but because they appear remote to some of the problems often associated with fungi, mold and aflatoxin damage. The website w.w.w.healthbenefits.com says:

    “If you are experiencing some symptoms like fever, skin rash, headache, muscle and joint pains, you are probably suffering from Dengue. But that is the common one. If you are experiencing any dangerous symptoms like, blood plasma leakages, low platelet count and bleeding, you are probably suffering from the dangerous disease called hemorrhagic fever. Dengue fever is a deadly disease caused by the virus called Aedes mosquito.  Some studies as indicate that papaya leaves contains enzymes like chemopapain and Papain that can boost and normalise the platelet count and the liver damage caused by Dengue disease and then it also will add the recovery form Dengue disease.”

    I foresee many pawpaw plants in urban Nigerian cities, such as Lagos, becoming leafless when the vogue of pawpaw leaf tea and pawpaw leaf juice sweep through the country. All country people should have no problem with steady supply of fresh pawpaw leaves. Places such as Lagos which are concrete cities will pay through the nose for theirs. In some cases, the consumers may even end up with yeast and mold infected pawpaw leaves.

    Meanwhile, pawpaw leaf’s healing powers continue to make the news in various part of the world. University of Florida researcher Nam Dang, from Vietnam, and colleague have documented in the Journal of ethmophamacology finding of papaya leaf extract. Showed anti-cancer effects against tumors of the cervix, breast, liver, lung and pancreas.  The findings agree with folklore medicine in his native Vietnam.  They use extracts from dry papaya leaves and obtained stronger effects when they used larger dosages. Their extracts were reported to boost production of “key signalling molecule called Th 1-type cytokines, which help regulate the immune system to fight cancers”. Through the University of Tokyo, Dang and his colleagues have applied for a patent for their work. Dr. Nam H.Dang, M.D., Ph.D., is a board certified medical oncologist with expertise in the study and treatment of lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). He is a professor and deputy chief of the division of hematology and oncology as well as Director of the University of Florida Shands Cancer Center Clinical Trials Office”. For the patent, he is partnering Hendricks Luesch, Ph.D., a fellow UF Shands Cancer Centre member and a professor of medicinal chemistry.  Luesch is an expert in the identification and synthesis of natural products for medicinal purposes and recently discovered a coral-reef compound that inhibits cancer cell growth in cell lines.”

    Ladies and gentlemen, the table is set and now let us mince pawpaw leaves with our meals. Are you listening, Ladun Runsewe, Abayomi Adepoju, Razak GRA Akande, Gboyega Ige, Akin Orebiyi, Kola Ogunmola, Bukola Azeez, Francesca Omolara Bello, Yahaya Saida, Irene Akintoye. ..?

  • Random thoughts about aflatoxin, pawpaw leaf detox (1)

    PAWPAW leaf tea, juice and salad are catching on. I almost let out the cat in today’s bag at 6:59a.m last Sunday when Mr. Abayomi Olugbemi, 55, a civil servant in Kogi State telephoned me to say he was an avid reader of this column, read the previous week’s hints on the use of pawpaw (papaya) leaf for detoxification and wished to know how to boil and use the tea extract. Had I told him that, this week, I planned to say something more about the medicinal values of pawpaw leaf, he would have thought he was clairvoyant or clairaudient. I suspect that common thoughts linked us. For when I called him at about 11:00a.m, about six hours later, his kettle was already on the stove, and he was about to make pawpaw leaf tea. I told him he could chew the leaf on empty stomach, juice and drink it, or eat it as salad with a meal. For that was what a group of us did the previous day’s afternoon in the office of Budget Travels, a friendly neighbour of my health food store.

     

    Miracle woman

    Saturday February 4 was like any other day at Budget Travels office. The previous day, Friday, I arrived too early for work to the concern of almost every-one. Normally, I work from the health food store at home and arrive at that in the office between 2:00p.m and 3:00p.m. But, last Friday, Florence Akibom Fusi came visiting at home to pick up some bottles of Coconut oil and to give me a plantain head from her farm. It was a gift exchange for the many health ideas gifts she obtains from me, including, recently, the uses of sensitive (Touch Me Not) plant and pawpaw leaf juice. That same day, she unloaded a pile of pawpaw leaves which my son, Seun, dressed up and refrigerated. That Friday, we took some to the office, to be eaten with our lunch. Mrs Bukola Azeez, Chief executive officer of Budget Travels, decided to try out a cutting. The regular partakers had been Mr Dotun Akintoye, Mr Yahaya Saidu (a.k.a Alhaji and my goodself). Mrs Fusi was going to see her doctors at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) and had decided to stop over at my office which, until now, she had not visited. She was well received. But my acquaintances did not know she was the Miracle Woman I often wrote about or mentioned in my Kusa Green Pasture Herbs chat group, a talk forum for many long-standing readers of this column. Mrs Fusi is like the proverbial cat with many lives. For her nowadays, everyday has to be lived in thanksgiving to the Almighty Creator and Ruler of All the Worlds. She recognises her doctors and many friends as the tools, of His healing Rays or Power. These doctors are in two groups. The first attends to her outside LUTH and Facilitate her connection with various specialists at LUTH. In the first group are Dr. Abayomi Aiyesimoju, Dr. Fagbemi and Dr. Wale Ogunbadejo.

    When she came back miraculously to life again about eight months ago, each one gave her a different first name…Miracle, Gratitude, Grace!

    Behind her hospital medical scenes were many back-room workers. There was, and still is, Mrs Modupe Ogunwale. There was, and still is, Mrs Norma Ojo. She calls them “mothers”. There are her two daughters, Caroline, the elder, and Cella, the youngest of her three children. Caroline is struggling through a second Master’s degree in England and with finances to keep going with two pretty twin baby girls and a nanny for them. Despite the odds, she still finds the money to send to Lagos valuable nutritional supplements to address her mother’s condition. There is another young woman abroad who is worth mentioning. She is Chidima, a gyneacologist. When she was a young girl in Nigeria and struggling, Mrs Fusi stood behind her like a rocky mother. When she learned that Mrs Fusi could do well on ZEOLITE, for detoxification and alkalisation, she researched literature on this wonderful natural detox agent and then purchased some for her.

    I have digressed somewhat to talk about Mrs Fusi because (1) I met with her personally again last Friday for the first time in about eight months, including the months she was in hospital, watching many people die around her, although we spoke frequently on the telephones and (2) because she understands well now the importance of detoxification, the subject of this column today.

    Birthday

    The day after Mrs Fusi’s visit, that is last Saturday, was a usual Saturday, except that it was the birthday of Mrs Bukola Azeez. She had hoped none of us would remember, and it would pass quickly and privately. I missed it on FACEBOOK notification. So did many of us, especially Mr Akintoye, who always wanted a “happening” on such landmark days. But Mr Seun Babalola did not forget. He came all the way from Lekki to Ilupeju and “broke the speaker”. In a twinkle, everything was happening. Seun bought me a can of unsweetened yoghurt because I was off alcohol which, in any case, Mr Akintoye prohibited on that day to the pleasure of Mrs Azeez, whose husband, like her, is a teetotler. Of the group, only Mrs Francisca Bello was absent. She had known of the birthday, and had wished to come. But Mrs Azeez was going to be out till late in the afternoon, so they agreed to meet last Monday, two days after. So, the train had to move in her absence after Mr Babalola spilled the beans.

    It was a small but beautiful party. Mr Seun Kusa brought out the box of pawpaw leaves he had brought from home. Mrs Azeez testified that the one she ate the previous day moved her bowels so wonderfully she had to eat in urgency. Mr Akintoye had the same experience. His wife had to quickly fix a meal a few hours afterwards. That afternoon, I, too had to rush a meal prematurely. In the morning, I had had for breakfast whole pap from the whole grain powder of white corn, yellow corn and guinea corn to which soya bean powder was added. After serving, the gruel was joined by carrot powder and one tablespoonful of Blackstrap Molasses. Ordinarily,  that should have taken me to mid evening when Banana and pawpaw snacks would have tied the day’s diet. But I must have eaten one whole pawpaw leaf either on empty stomach or to safeguard the consumption of a birthday cake from Spar with the icing top made from milk and butter. As I know, butter and milk are fatty and pawpaw is proteolytic enzymes of Papain, Lipase and Amylase will easily deal with them. So hungry did I become by about 5:00p.m that I had to ask Miss Rosemary Bassey, Secretary of Budget Travels, to find me a meal urgently. She returned soon after with fufu, a dense carbonhydrate food made from cassava tuber. I hardly ate it because of its denseness and because it may come smelly and slimy, evidence of microbial degradation, perhaps the handiwork of fungi or mold and, therefore, aflatoxin loaded. To worsen matters, the fufu was wrapped with cellophane which should have impacted it with zenoestrogen and other petroleum residues. But I was hungry, gulped half of it down with vegetable soup and ate more pawpaw leaves, afraid, though, not to overdo it, as this leaf is reported to stimulate the production of blood platelet cells.

    One lesson we all learned was that pawpaw leaf was a blood sugar burner and, most likely, good for diabetes like orange peel.

     

    Aflatoxin

    After the publication last week (Aflatoxin in Nigerian Foods, Cancer, Hiv…Antidotes), I received enquires regarding the possibility that cooking will destroy aflatoxins. My response was that this is wishful thinking. Prolonged exposure to aflatoxin-loaded foods such as beans, peanuts, dried fish, palm oil, yam, maize etc damages DNA of cells, cause their mutation, impaired function or loss of function and even cancer.

    Aflatoxin targets in particular the p53 gene of the human cell. This gene is the regulator of a cell’s growth, suppressor of tumours and the suicide trigger of a cell. If a cell is stepping out of tune from the rest of the body, the p53 gene is naturally equipped to make the cell commit suicide, a process scientists call apoptosis. In 1993, the p53 gene was named Molecule of the Year by science magazine. Different kinds of carcinogens (cancer-causing substances) target different “hot spots” in the p53 human cell gene.

    Dr. Thomas Kensler, Ph.D., professor at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says in www.dnalc.org:

    “I believe the importance of aflatoxin and the causation of liver cancer results from a life long series of exposure. Intermittent sort of random exposures are not likely to sort of tip the balance and create the cancer cells; our defence mechanisms are pretty good for those very low levels and intermittent levels of exposure. But there is a chronic long-term exposure through the diet in many of these high-risk areas. In turn, that means we need a chronic long-term commitment to a preventive intervention. We need an intervention that people could take everyday or at least several times a week, but not just for weeks to make the problem go away, but for the rest of their lives. For as long as the aflatoxin exposure is there, the need for counter manding or intervention approach is also very importan.”

    This was the question Mr. Abayomi Olugbemi asked me on Sunday morning during his telephone call from Kogi State.

    He was alluding to the column of last week in which studies were reported which found that as much as 40 percent of Nigerian foods sold in the markets were aflatoxin poisoned, and a possible cause of why cancer of the liver and other cancers were now prevalent in the country, especially among young people. Mr Olugbemi thought we should be talking now about how to engage aflatoxin everyday in the diet. I replied that was the thesis of last week’s column titled AFLATOXINS IN NIGERIAN FOODS, CANCER, HIV…ANTIDOTES, which has been posted on www.olufemikusa.com.

    We live in a poisoned world from which we cannot flee, I said, and only detoxification can help to prolong our lives and make us free of pain and disease, as already demonstrated in the chicken heart tissue experiment which made chicken heart tissue live for about 34years against lifespan of five. (You will find in www.olufemikusa.com previous articles on this subject which address detoxification of the human body).

     

    pH balance

    In their pH Miracle, Dr. Robert O. Young and Redford young lead us back to the “New Biology of Health” which suggests that there is nothing we can do about fungi, mold and aflatoxin except we co-operative with Nature. The story of the New Biology of Health goes like this…

    …inside every living cell, man, animal or plant, there is a microorganism called the microzyma. It is inactive for as long as the cell is alkaline. If it is acidic, microzyma becomes active, and its job in nature is to decompose the cell to its building blocks. That is what makes cells decay or rot. Acidity and alkalinity are measured on a 0-14pH scale in which 0-6.9 is acidic, 7 is neutral and 7.1 to 14 is alkaline. The cells are pain and disease free at about 7.4, it is said.Cooked food is acidic. Raw food is alkaline. Processed foods such as milk and white sugar foods are grossly acidic, sometimes at 3.5PH. When the cell is acidic, microzyma devolves into bacteria. Antibiotics will kill the bacteria, alright. But more bacteria will resurface as the antibiotics make the cell more toxic and acidic. As the cells become more acidic, the bacteria devolves into strains more resistant to antibiotics. When higher antibiotic dosages are deployed, or when stronger and new antibiotics are employed, the bacteria devolve into viruses or fungi and terrible strains of mold. At this stage, the decomposition of the cell, such as that of pawpaw or tomato or breast cancer, is in full gear.

    …In test tube experiments, Dr. Young showed that mold can evolve into fungi, virus and bacteria and then into microzyma as the acidic environment in which the experiment is carried out is altered to alkalinity. This suggests that, in disease conditions, respite may come if the body is detoxified and its pH made alkaline.

    Dr. Young and Shelley Redford, Young say:

    “Acid imbalance is perfectly natural when we are dead. The chaos of acid imbalance and microform overgrowth is an entirely natural and orderly process when life is ending. The body automatically becomes acidic upon death. Once a body stops breathing, oxygen levels of course decrease, creating the anaerobic (“without oxygen”) environment microforms thrive in (in addition to the acid they love). Then these little buggers get down to work. Their one big job is that they are principal “undertakers” when we die. Those mycotoxins are designed to decompose our dead bodies. The microforms and their toxins are here to reduce us into our simplest component parts-back to microzymas. Biologists call it the carbon cycle. It is the literary meaning of “ashes to ashes and dust to dust”. In less technical or poetic language; they are what make our corpses rot. With microform overgrowth in overly acidic living bodies, that process is set in motion prematurely. Yeast and fungus start their takeover while we are still living. We are basically rotting inside. Fermenting. Molding. Take your pick! Keep in mind however that there is nothing inherently bad about microforms themselves. If anything, they are actually good.

    From the account of the Youngs, every-one with a coated tongue or women who suffer from vaginal candidiasis or people who belch or fart are dying instalmentally without knowing they are, because these are symptoms of Candida activity going on inside them.

    I am all apologies I cannot address today the roles pawpaw leaf can play or does play in helping us to not only alkalize our bodies, but to also bring down the microbial load and save us from decomposition while we are still alive.