European medicinal and edible plants associated with subacute and chronic toxicity part II: Plants with hepato-, neuro-, nephro- and immunotoxic effects

Wild edible plants: Nutritional and toxicological characteristics, retrieval strategies and importance for today's society

“…So far, it is not clearly known whether the oxalic acid is harmful by itself or only when it is in the form of calcium oxalate (Kristanc and Kreft, 2016a). Despite this, people who easily form kidney stones should give preference to plant foods with a low oxalic acid content, like the basal leaves of C. intybus, T. obovatum and C. juncea (Morales et al, 2014;Sánchez-Mata et al, 2012), the wild asparagus T. communis, H. lupulus and B. dioica Sánchez-Mata et al, 2012), the bulb and pseudostem of A. ampeloprasum (García- Herrera et al, 2014a;Sánchez-Mata et al, 2012), or the flowering parts of M. sylvestris and P. tridentatum Pereira et al, 2013), which provide less than 70 mg/100 g of oxalic acid (Table 7) and have an oxalic acid/Ca ration lower than 2.5 (Fig.…”

“…Its toxicity is mainly attributed to the presence of caryophyllene oxide, while the toxicity of ascaridole is potentiated by the availability of redox-active iron (Gille et al, 2010;Monzote et al, 2009). 1,8-Cineole (eucalyptol) is an essential oil constituent of G. hederacea, M. pulegium and O. vulgare (EFSA, 2012(EFSA, , 2009Kristanc and Kreft, 2016a). It is used as food flavouring and as excipient in the pharmaceutical industry.…”

“…This compound has a quite low toxicity, but it can reduce the bioavailability of dietary Ca by the formation of an insoluble complex of calcium oxalate (Kristanc and Kreft, 2016a). Known as raphides in plants, this calcium salt is the primary constituent of the most common kind of human kidney stones (Amalraj and Pius, 2015).…”

“…Therefore, the consumption of 324 mg of C. ambrosioides can provide the amount of oxalic acid (5 g) set as the minimal lethal dose for an adult (a level difficult to reach through the diet). However, it should be noted that the bioavailability of ingested oxalate is estimated to be less than 15% and is influenced by a number of food composition and physiological related factors (Brogren and Savage, 2003;Kristanc and Kreft, 2016a;Liebman and AlWahsh, 2011).…”

“…Pulegone can be found in Mentha sp.pl., especially in M. pulegium essential oil, which also contains the bicyclic monoterpenes menthofuran and thujones (Anderson et al, 1996;Da Rocha et al, 2012;EFSA, 2012EFSA, , 2009EMA, 2016;Kristanc and Kreft, 2016a). Menthofuran is a hepatotoxin produced biosynthetically from pulegone (a compound with strong insecticidal activity) (Abdelli et al, 2016).…”