POTATO POISONING
Thanks to their bitter taste, potato stems and leaves are rarely eaten. This is fortunate because all parts of a potato plant except its root tubers (the potatoes) contain the potent poison, solanine. High concentrations of solanine are produced in the shoots of potatoes; and the potatoes themselves, as well as their shoots, become loaded with solanine a few days after they begin sprouting.
Vomiting and diarrhea, sometimes accompanied by mild fever, appear four to 14 hours after ingestion of sprouting potatoes. Large amounts of solanine can cause coma, convulsions and circulatory collapse, from which some people never recover. According to the Quarterly Journal of Medicine, the diarrhea and vomiting last for about a week, while mental confusion and hallucinations may persist for several more days after physical recovery. People already weakened by heart disease, alcoholism, or malnutrition, etc., are the most likely to be fatally affected.
Two points worth making are that mild solanine poisoning may be the unrecognized cause of institutional diarrhea outbreaks and that no amount of cooking can remove solanine from potatoes once it has been formed. So, be on the safe side, and throw away any potatoes that are beginning to sprout.
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