In the district of Muzaffarpur, Indian state of Bihar, hundreds of children have been died in past two decade. The cause of death of unknown and the scientists were very surprised over the mysterious death.
The scientists pointed the main reason behind these suspicious death was a chemical, which was found in lychee and this fruit is very popular among the people. This fruit is found in Bihar abundantly and it is also found in some areas in Pakistan. The discovery of chemical in the fruit is relevant to the people living in that area.
Lychee as the Cause of Death
Local people called this disease as ‘Chamki’ and this disease spreads in May and June every year and many children died due to this disease. When the disease is spread, about 390 children were admitted in two hospitals in 2014 and 122 children were survived from this fatal disease.
The Indian and American scientists have done their joint effort to find out the cause of the disease by eating lychee on empty stomach. The research work has been carried out for three years and it was published in the world famous science magazine, Lancet global.
According to the research activity, the lychee is added with Hypoglycin A, which is the toxic chemical and the researchers have confirmed that this toxic chemical present in this fruit outbreaks the fatal brain sickness among the children, where this fruit is grown.
Indian ministry of health and family welfare made a request for the qualified clinical pedestrian from the Christian medical college India. Dr John camped at Bihar, where deaths have been occurred. He found that the children have low blood sugar and it is aided with metabolic disease. The children, who are under nourished and they live near lychee orchards, they appeared to suffer from the disease during May and June when this fruit is planted.
The victims had signs of brain cell damage and seizures, which show toxin and not just undernourishment to cause the disease.
When the blood and urine testing was carried out of the affected children, it was found that their blood and urine samples have the traces of chemical compounds in them. it was found that most of the children ate lychee excessively on the empty stomach and these malnourished children were prone to get this disease on the consumption of lychee.
The fine quality lychee was found in Muzaffarpur district and it is also exported to global markets around the world. The parents of the affected children said that during the harvesting season of lychee, the kids spend most of their time in the farms of lychee. Even the children skip their meals during this time. The doctors have recommended the residents to eat this fruit in the limited quantity and they need to follow the balanced diet.
Lychee in Pakistan
Lychee is the popular fruit, which is mostly found in Pakistan. In 1932, Sardar Faqir Singh of Dera Dune, India brought this fruit in Pakistan and he started the commercial production of this exotic plant and its commercial production was started in 1960. Initially, the commercial production of this plant was started in Begum Kot Lahore then the cultivation of this plant was started in some other areas of Punjab and after that its production was started in some areas of Sindh.
More than 95% production of the fruit was marketed through pre-harvest contractors. This fruit is commercialized through baskets with the net weight of 20-80 kgs. The harvesting season is distributed among the provinces and it is harvested in Sindh in May, in the province of Punjab in June and in the province of KPK in July every year.
The doctors and scientists have carried out the research work and it is recommended to avoid the consumption of this fruit abundantly on the empty stomach even the fruit has not being tested to know the presence of chemical traces in this fruit.
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