Consumption of mustard oil adulterated with Argemone Mexicana oil is known to cause an epidemic popularly referred to as Dropsy. Several outbreaks have been reported in the past. The dropsy incidence at Delhi in August 1998 appears to be the largest reported in the country involving over 2500 victims with more than 60 deaths.
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Argemone oil poisoning symptoms:
- Vomiting
- Diarrhoea
- Nausea
- Fever
- Pitting edema
- Breathlessness
- Liver enlargement
- Glaucome (tension in eyes)
- Death due to cardiac respiratory failure
Need for field kit:
- Mustard oil constitutes a prime dietary component of various households.
- A strict vigil is required to check its purity and authenticity.
- Consumption of Argemone oil contaminated edible oil, even at low levels of adulteration for short duration, causes toxicity.
- Hence presence of Argemone oil even in trace quantities needs to be ascertained.
- Visualizing the overall problem and need for simple and quick field level test, a simple Argemone oil detection kit has been developed.
Validation of the kit:
The feed back on the working of the kit has been obtained from various food testing laboratories including all the four Central Food Labs.
Potential users:
- Mandi oil seed dealers
- Edible oil expeller units etailers
- Consumers themselves
- Consumer Guidance Organizations
- Food inspectors
- Health authorities
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