Konzo occurs when cassava tubers are not properly prepared before consumption, which usually requires soaking them until they ferment and then drying them in the sun to allow for the breakdown of cyanogenic compounds.

Thus, the neurocognitive effects documented for non-konzo children in konzo-affected households and communities make it all the more important to ensure food safety in regions dependent on bitter varieties of cassava with high levels of cyanogenic compounds.

As an illustration, current regulations for GM foods, if applied to non-GM products, would bar the sale of potatoes and tomatoes, which can contain poisonous glycoalkaloids; celery, which contains carcinogenic psoralens; rhubarb and spinach (oxalic acid); and cassava, which feeds about half a billion people, but contains toxic cyanogenic alkaloids.

Cyanogenic in sentence

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