According to the Health Times. There are two kinds of gourd seeds: sweet gourd and bitter gourd. Sweet gourd is rich in nutrition, with high nutritional value when tender, and the nutritional components are obviously reduced after maturity. It is recommended to eat it when it is tender. Because of its high content of water, vitamins and minerals and low calorie, it is very popular with everyone. Gourd can be fried, stewed, made into soup, stuffed and so on. , such as gourd scrambled eggs, gourd shrimp skin soup, gourd stuffing jiaozi, etc. , are all good dishes.
However, eating bitter gourd seeds by mistake can cause food poisoning. According to Changjiang Daily, bitter gourd seeds contain phytotoxin alkaloid glycosides, which are not easy to decompose after frying, and can be poisoned by a small amount of mistake. Symptoms of balsam pear seed poisoning will appear within 1~2 hours after eating, ranging from dry mouth, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, fatigue and lethargy to abdominal pain, diarrhea, dehydration, bloody stool and even life-threatening.
Why does Zanzi contain alkaloid glycoside toxin? Gu, a doctor of botany in Peking University, said in an interview with Hebei News Network that the reason why some fish eggs contain alkaloid glycoside toxin may be that plants occasionally encounter some situations in the growth process, such as melon vines being trampled or being affected by heredity, high temperature and drought, which leads to the self-defense of plants and produces this toxin. It is rare to produce alkaloid glycoside toxin in pepper, but it may be produced in some vegetables of Cucurbitaceae, such as pepper, cucumber and gourd.
So, in our daily life, how can we distinguish bitterness from sweetness? Changjiang Daily suggested that the shapes of bitter and sweet candied fruit are difficult to distinguish, and most of them are sweet on the market. If consumers are not at ease, they can take a sip when cutting caviar gourd, and don't eat it if it is bitter.