Akee fruit by Loren Sztajer (CC BY-ND 2.0)
Ackee is a tropical fruit native to West Africa, where it is known as akye, but it is legendary in Jamaica. Brought to the Caribbeans in the 18th century, it is the National Fruit of Jamaica and one half of Jamaica’s signature dish, ackee and saltfish. Ackee is a member of the Sapindaceae family, an extensive family also referred to as soapberry. Species within this family include the tropical fruits lychee, longan, and guarana, and an additional 2000 others. But none of these have a history quite like the ackee, and it starts with its scientific name. The ackee, Blighia sapida, is named after the individual who brought specimens from the Caribbean to the famed Kew Gardens in London in 1793, one Captain William Bligh of “Mutiny on the Bounty” lore. [This fact was confirmed to me by one of Kew Gardens excellent Librarians. Thank you very much.]
Akee fruit by Rik Schuiling (CC 3.0)
In Jamaica, and other islands throughout the Caribbean, the ackee fruit grows on evergreen trees that can reach 50 feet tall (~15 meters). The fruit itself are pods, grown in clusters, that ripen from green to red, and are harvested when the pod splits open. Once open and mature, the seeds, numbering from three to five, are clearly visible. Not all of the fruit is edible, though. Only the fleshy arilli covering the massive black seeds are used. The seed pod and seed are discarded. The arilli are tender, so they are typically added to the dish last, and cooked through when the cream colored ackee turns yellow.
A typical recipe for ackee and saltfish, adapted from many on-line sources:
1/2 lb Saltfish
12 fresh ripe ackees** or 1 can, drained (read below for why)
1 onion, chopped
1 T of butter or oil
1 hot pepper (such as a fruity habanero)
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
fresh thyme
salt and pepper to taste
- Simmer saltfish in water for ~20 minutes.
- Drain saltfish, remove bones and skin. Flake.
- Sautee onion and bell pepper in butter.
- Make several slits with a knife in the habanero, add, and sautee.
- Add tomatoes, saltfish, and fresh thyme. Cook 10 minutes.
- Add ackee, stir until cooked through and hot.
- Season to taste. Serve.
* Habanero may be removed if too hot, or diced up if not hot enough.
* note: US copyright does not protect recipes or directions, so steal copy away.
** Some pre-cook ackee by boiling in water for 5-20 minutes to a desired “doneness” and texture, while others do so and insist it is to “remove the toxins.” Read below, but ripe ackee contains little Hypogylcin, but boiling can remove up to 85% of it. If you’re in doubt about your ackee, either don’t use it at all, or boil it (discarding the water). See ref. 5 for more info.
So what’s so unusual about ackee, you might be thinking. So far all I’ve described is a staple food with a rich history. There’s got to be more to it than that, right? Of course. It just wouldn’t be Nature’s Poisons without some devious plot by Mother Nature.
If you’re in the United States, go look for some fresh ackee. Go ahead, I’ll wait. So unless you found some being sold by a shifty looking character behind the International Market, you struck out. That’s because importation of ackee is banned by the FDA (1). The ban even extends to most canned ackee products. The only way to have it legally imported is by the manufacturer getting it “green listed” by the FDA, meaning that it has already been vetted as safe.
Safe? As in it there is a probability of it being un-safe? Most definitely. Only it isn’t so much a probability, rather a surety. You see, there’s this thing called Jamaican vomiting sickness (JVS), and it’s pretty self explanatory. The illness starts within 2-12 hours of consuming unripe ackee, or its pods or seeds. Symptoms include vomitting, loss of consciousness, and seizures. Without immediate supportive care, death can result. In a three month period of 2001 in Haiti there were 60 cases of poisoning due to ackee, resulting in 36 deaths (2). So the threat is very real.
Hypoglycin
The chemical and poison behind JVS is hypoglycin, a nonproteinogenic amino acid, meaning that it is an unnatural amino acid and not found in our genetic code. The name hypoglycin tells a bit about it. It works its evil by lowering the victim’s blood sugar. The exact mechanism is still unknown, but the prevailing theory is that it inhibits the carnitine-CoA transferase system, which in turn inhibits fatty-acid oxidation. When this occurs, concentration of fats increase throughout the body, leading to an increased use of glucose and inevitable hypoglycemia (3). Supportive care and therapy includes managing the seizures , stabilizing blood sugar, replacing fluids, and sedation with benzodiazepines (such as lorazepam).
This is indeed a serious issue, and often afflicts the young who have not yet been taught that unripe ackee are poisonous. Overall JVS affects hundreds per year in the Caribbean and west African nations. But it is not just fresh, unripe fruit that poses a problem. The FDA ban mentioned earlier includes canned ackee. Hypoglycin is not destroyed during cooking or canning. Processing unripe ackee is merely preparing death in a can. The first reported illness in the United States came from canned ackee (4). An individual of Jamaican descent living in Toledo, Ohio was sent a can of ackee by her sister in Toronto. Two hours after cooking and consuming the ackee she fell ill with vomitting, and eventually made her way to an emergency department, where she received supportive care. She recovered, but spent three days in the hospital. All because of a can of fruit.
So while being a gorgeous specimen of fruit, a delicious staple food, the National Fruit of Jamaica, and part of Jamaica’s signature dish, it is quite deadly. Off the top of my head I can’t think of another food that is so revered yet so poisonous. If you know of any, leave a comment, e-mail, or hit me up on twitter @NaturesPoisons.
This post was featured in the March edition of the Berry-go-round, a blog carnival devoted to the unique and diverse members of the plant kindgdom. The March edition focused on unusual edibles, and also featured tamarisk, licorice, acorns, nutmeg, and Andean tubers. The March edition was hosted by Emma Cooper, and can be found here: http://emmacooper.org/blog/march-berry-go-round-unusual-edible-plants, so go have a look!
References:
1. “Import Alert 21-11.” http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cms_ia/importalert_64.html.
2. Joskow, Renée, Martin Belson, Hubert Vesper, Lorraine Backer, and Carol Rubin. “Ackee Fruit Poisoning: An Outbreak Investigation in Haiti 2000–2001, and Review of the Literature.” Clinical Toxicology 44 (2006): 267-73.
3. Barceloux, Donald G. “Akee Fruit and Jamaican Vomiting Sickness (Blighia Sapida Köenig).” Disease-a-Month 55.6 (2009): 318-26.
4. Mctague, Jerome, and Robert Forney. “Jamaican Vomiting Sickness in Toledo, Ohio.” Annals of Emergency Medicine 23.5 (1994): 1116-118.
5. Golden, K. D., O. J. Williams, and Y. Bailey-Shaw. “High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Analysis of Amino Acids in Ackee Fruit with Emphasis on the Toxic Amino Acid Hypoglycin A.” Journal of Chromatographic Science 40.8 (2002): 441-46.
Nature's Poisons 
There are closely-related mushroom toxins that look like hypoglycin but have a triple bond instead of the vinylcylopropane moiety. These toxic aminoacids irreversibly inhibit fatty acid metabolism and cause pronounced hypoglycemia, but there is also a delayed cardiotoxicity which eventually kills the victim.
It was isolated just few years ago, after Chinese villagers ate wild mushrooms (that was “known” to be edible), got ill and and died of heart failure some days later. Apparently similar poisonings were happening from time to time but only recently the cause was pinned down to mushroom.
That’s cool, well not for them. Thanks for the tip! I remember you well from when I used to peruse Derek’s Pipeline blog. I left pharma and fell out of touch for a while.
Oh, and check out tomorrows post – another nonproteinogenic cyclopropane amino acid. And from a mushroom!
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Another Jamaican staple: cassava.
Yes, cassava is poisonous, but bammy, which is made from it is well-loved Jamaican staple.
What about the puffer fish? That’s even more poisonous and is considered a delicacy in Japan.
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Should big pharma be looking at hypoglycin as a starting point for an oral hypoglycaemic (yes, I’m in UK) agent? Or does the mode of action rule it out altogether?
I’m 100% sure someone has brought it up, but the known side effects and deaths can’t be ignored. The therapeutic index is small, if it even has one! And analogs would likely fail, so I’m sure it was a short lived project.
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Imagine our surprise when we looked up the ackee and found that it is probably one of the few trees growing in the U.S. So yes, we do have fresh ackee right now! This is the first of its kind I seen even here in South Florida, but I suppose in some neighborhoods it might even be common. Don’t think I’m going to try to cook it, at least not this year. Thanks! This was a tough one for us to identify 🙂
So, back in 2002, I got JV disease from ackee in Toronto, Canada. It was a very mild case, but absolutely No Fun.
Female, caucasian, 100 lbs, 20 yrs old. Good general health, no food allergies, no diabetes.
I was staying with a Jamaican-Trinidadian friend on the summer break, and nibbled on some peeled raw fruit that my friend’s mother was preparing. I think that it was fresh, not canned, but my memory is a bit vague.My friend told me that it was called ackee, and that it was used for such-and-such in Jamaica, but I don’t think that anyone warned me that it might be dangerous. The piece that I had was nasty tasting; bitter or astringent, like raw peanut or raw plantain, so I spit it out after chewing it for a mament or two.
We ate breakfast, went to a public pool, swam and came back. I was very itchy, which I ascribed to the pool chlorine, so I took a shower. About five minutes in the shower, the hypoglycemia hit like a train. I was able to get out, mentoin that I didn’t feel well, and stagger downstairs, wrapped in a towel.
I vomited, collapsed, and was technically concious, but very weak. My friend and her mother carried me to the car and drove me to the ER (Mississauga General, I believe). I was aware enough to give my info and health card to registration, and to tell the doctor who saw me that I felt hypoglycemic and that I thought that the cause might be the fruit, which he had never heard of.
My blood sugar was tested. I don’t know the result. The doctor was rude and abrupt. I was given Benadryl, which knocked me out for four hours (the hypoglycemia probably assisted). The staff forgot that I was there, my friends. were not informed and were becoming frantic. The doctor finally came back to the bed and asked what I was still doing there. By this point I was mostly recovered, but groggy, so he told me to leave.
We went home. I ate, and I was fine. The end.
Justin, you are way off base on the importation of ackee into the United States. The ban on ackee was lifted some 10+ years ago, and you can find the canned product on many grocery stores where you have African and Caribbean imigrants.
I recently saw canned ackee on the shelves of Walmart and Wegmans in Frederick Maryland. I know that you can also buy ackee throught Connecticut and New York City.
Canned, yes. Fresh – as I stated – is still a “no” as far as I can tell from the FDA .
“If you’re in the United States, go look for some fresh ackee. Go ahead, I’ll wait. So unless you found some being sold by a shifty looking character behind the International Market, you struck out. That’s because importation of ackee is banned by the FDA (1). The ban even extends to most canned ackee products. The only way to have it legally imported is by the manufacturer getting it “green listed” by the FDA, meaning that it has already been vetted as safe.”
Also, every few years the policy shifts. sometimes even canned ackee is banned, other times not. sometimes a bowl of homemade (cooked ) ackee is okay, sometimes not.
I didn’t know that! Thanks for the info.
So if someone has an ackee tree in their backyard, is that illegal?
I’m not a lawyer, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn last night (I pray live in the US and get the reference), but you’re OK.
Thanks Justin!I did some reading and it was mentioned about akee trees in Florida (where I live). But they didn’t mention anything about it being illegal, and it didn’t mention about the fruit being illegal to sell, when the fruit itself was grown in Florida. It only mentioned about it being illegal importation from Jamaica. I couldn’t find anything about it being illegal in Florida, the ackee fruit itself from trees in Florida. I guess my question is what would one do with the fruit? Other than giving it away. When one doesn’t have anyone to give it to and feel uncomfortable giving it away in the first place. What would you recommend?
Thanks again for your prompt answer. I appreciate it!
I write this because you mentioned Lychee and thought it would be interesting for you to know that Lychee has the same toxin. Here is the article :
Wish I could take him up on his bet. My local Thrifty grocery store has caned ackee on sale. They listed it in their weekly flier
You can find canned, but not fresh (legally, that is).
I found some fresh ackee last month- it was so fresh, it had just fallen off the tree. But there WERE signs all around “CAUTION: POISONOUS FRUIT.” I was at the Fruit and Spice Park in Homestead, FL. Also saw starfruits and a Manchineel tree. Oh, and A. precatorius. So many toxins… And Ricinus…
WELCOME BACK!!
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https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/398213987519786/
This is a marketplace post on facebook. 10/12/2019. This post is for fresh ackee being sold by someone in palm bay florida. I’m always looking for plants and fruit to grow here in florida. I’m finding almost every exotic is poisonous in some way! I’ve eaten many leeches from local growers and never had any problems. Didnt know they were poisonous til I read about the ackee fruit. I have a passion fruit vine and have eaten many fruit that weren’t ripe. Not even a stomach ache. Someone told me recently that unripe passionfruit is poisonous too! Should I do anything about the person selling the ackee fruit?
I suspect that unripe ackee was responsible for the death of the international cricket coach Bob Woolmer during the world cup
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As a jamaican I wonder how is it that we don’t get Ill from eating boiled ackee and yet the FDA claims that boiling does not remove toxins….
Notice during your research these deaths and illnesses related to ackee are never in Jamaica where it is their country’s national dish. Fun facts to know that Haitians use ackee as a predominant stable for their practice of voodoo. This may very well be the root cause of those deaths and illnesses. Also ackee is only poisonous when not cooked properly (meaning the person doesn’t know what they’re doing) and they harvested unopened ackee pods from the tree. Also to note ackee is not organically grown in the US therefore it would naturally be on the FDA’s ban list because of it foreign origin and the lack of knowledge about it. For decades now ackee can be found on many small and large chains grocery stores both in US and Canada.