What is Solanine?
Solanine is a toxic alkaloid that is formed in plants and protects them from various pests. This is its usefulness in the plant kingdom.
Solanine chemical formula
In dry form, it is a crystalline substance. It does not dissolve in aqueous solutions, but, on the contrary, it is easily soluble in alcohol solutions.
Harm and benefit
The benefits of solanine:
- Has an antifungal and insecticidal action. The content of the substance has been proven to increase if the plant is attacked by mold or insects underground. We can say that this member of the Solanaceae is trying to heal himself. Based on these properties, there are drugs for the antiviral, antiparasitic, antimicrobial pharmacological group.
- Proven anti-allergic and anti-inflammatory effects of the toxin. The use of the unique glycoalkaloid has not yet been fully disclosed. Its structure is now known to be close to animal-derived cortisone and cardiac glycosides. Based on a close relative of solasodin, cortisone was synthesized at the dawn of the use of hormonal drugs. Only through this method are they available in pharmacies.
- This vegetable glycoside plays a separate role in the agrotechnical sphere. With its help, powerful insecticides are made.
But the benefits and harms are equivalent here. Don't forget that this is a powerful poison. Any doctor will confirm that you should not self-medicate with this highly toxic drug under any circumstances.
Have you seen eggplant rich in solanine?
Well no
At home, it is impossible to determine the percentage of a substance in a plant, so all recipes will not be accurate, and the consequences of such treatment can be fatal.
The gardener should be aware of the need to not only grow the eggplant properly so that it is not rich in solanine, but also to choose a safe variety. In this article, you can find out which varieties of eggplant are less prone to bitterness, thereby reducing the chance of poisoning with solanine.
What kind of eggplant can you eat
It is best to eat not overripe eggplants. But overripe fruits are dangerous, because solanine accumulates in them - a poisonous substance that can lead to poisoning. Such vegetables are determined not only by the brown skin color, but also by the large number of seeds and stale stems. Therefore, only young, elastic, almost black eggplants should be chosen for consumption.
Expert opinion
Filatov Ivan Yurievich, private farmer for over 30 years
To avoid poisoning, any eggplant is recommended to be cut into slices and left for half an hour in water with added salt before use, this will also eliminate the bitterness inherent in some varieties.
White eggplants practically do not contain solanine and are not inferior to their purple "brothers".
General characteristics
Eggplant Long purple belongs to the early varieties. Vegetation lasts only 90 days from the moment the first shoots appear.
According to the description, the bush is not tall, about 70 cm. The stem is powerful, dense.Leaves are rich green, with a matte rough surface. The yield is high. About 2 kg of products are collected from the bush.
The fruits of the eggplant Long purple are about 25 cm long, 5-7 cm in diameter, and weigh 300 g.
Usage and taste
The pulp has a light, slightly greenish tint. Its structure is dense, not watery, so it is not necessary to soak it in salt before cooking in order to remove excess moisture. The taste is pleasant.
It is used in the preparation of fresh meals. Products of this variety are used for canned food and pickled culinary dishes.
How to remove solanine
So, how is solanine removed from eggplant:
- Bitter-fleshed eggplants are first cut into pieces, cubes, slices or otherwise.
- Then they are placed in a bowl, sprinkled with salt and left for half an hour or an hour. During this time, they will give abundant juice, which will remove all the bitterness.
- After that, the eggplants are washed several times in cold water. Together with the water, almost all the seeds are washed out of the slices. I must say that there are many of them in adult eggplants.
- Then the pieces are laid out in a colander or on a paper towel. You can squeeze out easily. And then cook according to the recipe.
- If the seeds are small and the eggplants are bitter, they are sprinkled with a small amount of salt for half an hour, then squeezed slightly and cooked further.
- If the eggplants contain seeds intended for filling, they are removed along with some of the pulp immediately after the vegetables are cut in the form of a boat or crosswise in the form of a keg.
- To remove the bitterness from eggplant, some housewives soak them in cold water, adding a tablespoon of salt to a quart of water. After half an hour, the eggplants are strained from the water, slightly dried and cooked according to your favorite recipe.
- To easily remove the skin from the eggplant, as well as the bitterness, they are blanched in boiling salted water for five minutes. Then they are removed, cooled with water and the skin is cleansed.
Causes of yellowing of leaves
Eggplant leaves often turn yellow when grown in a greenhouse or greenhouse, and then fly around. This situation is most often observed when using peat soil. However, it is inappropriate to draw conclusions about the cause of yellowing without inspecting the plant. In addition to the wrong soil, greenhouse eggplant leaves can be yellow for the following reasons.
- The presence of an increased sensitivity of a thermophilic plant to a sharp change in growing conditions. The leaves change color and wither slightly when transplanting seedlings, but after some time the eggplants adapt and the color of the leaves changes to green.
- A disease such as a mosaic of plant leaves can also be the cause. Most greenhouse vegetables are prone to this disease and eggplant is no exception. When damaged, eggplant leaves are covered with characteristic light spots, and ripe fruits become excessively hard. A factor provoking the onset of this disease is a violation of illumination. In addition, a decrease in the temperature regime inside the greenhouse is of no small importance. Such unsatisfactory conditions for keeping a vegetable crop can cause this disease and significantly reduce the yield of eggplant.
- Often there is a situation when the yellowness of eggplant leaves becomes the first sign of such a formidable disease of greenhouse vegetable crops as fusarium wilting. In this case, the leaves first lose their color and become pale green, and at the next stage they become yellow, wither and fall off. After the death of the leaves, all the branches of the plant wither, which is due to the defeat of the vascular system of the eggplant.
Often there is a situation when the yellowness of eggplant leaves becomes the first sign of such a formidable disease of greenhouse vegetable crops as fusarium wilting
The leaves of a plant affected by fusarium wilt have all the signs characteristic of fungal diseases. The harmful fungus enters the plant from the infected soil and infects the entire greenhouse plant through the root system.
In addition, contaminated seed can become a source of infection. In this case, the plant will inevitably die, and the gardener risks being left without a crop.
Hot weather and the lack of high-quality ventilation, which is optimal for the development of fungal spores, most often become a factor that weakening eggplant, accelerating the death of a vegetable crop.
The reason for the appearance of yellow spots on the leaves of eggplant can be ordinary sunburn, as well as burns from the lamps that illuminate the plants. Leaves that deviate from their natural color can be an indicator of a lack of potash fertilizers or be the result of using cold water to water the plants.
Poisoning symptoms and first aid
As long as the eggplants are ripe, they are safe to eat. However, overripe fruits contain enough solanine to cause intoxication. In addition, the concentration of this toxin is high in those fruits that have been exposed to the sun for a long time. Fortunately, this can be easily avoided by soaking the mature vegetable in plain water first.
Symptoms of solanine poisoning include the following:
- nausea, vomiting and diarrhea;
- abdominal pain and acute headaches;
- dilated pupils, their uneven response to light;
- loss of orientation in space;
- convulsive muscle contractions of the limbs;
- increased body temperature.
In particularly severe cases, convulsions, loss of consciousness and, ultimately, coma were observed.
With regular and long-term intake of small doses of solanine into the body, the following is observed:
- sleep disturbance;
- increased sleepiness;
- skin rash, itching;
- mouth ulcers.
If after eating eggplant there are signs of poisoning:
- The first thing to do is to write down the medical history, first of all, this applies to all foods that the patient has eaten in the last twenty-four hours.
- After that, the general condition should be assessed. Most often, hospitalization is not required, but if there are neurological symptoms, impaired consciousness, heartbeat or breathing are impaired, an ambulance is needed.
- The next step is to flush the stomach. This is a very important point, since it is necessary to help the body get rid of the toxins that have entered it as soon as possible. This requires a large amount of plain boiled water to drink and then induce vomiting by pressing on the root of the tongue. This procedure should be repeated several times until the stomach is completely emptied and the water coming out is practically clear.
- Then it is necessary to give the patient any sorbing drug that binds toxins and removes them from the body. The most famous and familiar is activated carbon, but recently a large number of more convenient and effective analogues have appeared (white coal, Enterosgel, Polysorb, etc.).
If the patient needs hospitalization, intravenous infusions are used to stabilize the patient's condition, the purpose of which is to replenish the circulating blood volume and eliminate the symptoms of poisoning. Typically, glucose, sodium chloride solution and Hartmann's solution are used.
Care advice
Taking care of the plant is easy
During the cultivation process, Long Purple Eggplant needs minimal maintenance. Water every 10 days. Use a drip irrigation system to water the entire area evenly.
Top dressing should be applied 3 times for the entire process of forming a bush and fruit. The first feeding - 5 days before transplanting seedlings into open ground, with a calculation of 2 kg / m².The second time saltpeter is applied at the root, at the time of flower formation (1.5 kg / m²). The third top dressing - at the time of fruiting, at the rate of 3 kg / m².
Eggplant Long purple does not need support or a garter. The formation of the bush should be carried out regularly. To do this, remove all lateral shoots and form a long, uniform main stem.
Prevention of poisoning
Of course, even knowing about the danger of poisoning, it is impossible with 100% probability to exclude the risk of intoxication. However, by following a set of rules for selecting eggplants, in most cases this danger can be avoided:
- The fruit should be slightly immature, with smooth, supple and shiny skin. If the eggplant is soft or slippery, lesions, dents or signs of decay appear on the skin, then it should be discarded immediately.
- You should also pay attention to the color. Neither the fruit nor the stalk should be brown, this is a sign of staleness of the product.
- Good quality fruit always looks simpler than it actually is. Therefore, when choosing an eggplant, it is better to weigh them in your hands (the normal ratio is half a kilogram for an average fruit 15 cm long).
- The presence of a peduncle is a must, because often, by tearing them off, sellers hide the overripe fruit. In addition to its presence, color and condition are important, it should not be brown, dry or wrinkled. This is one of the main signs of overripe.
- If you press down on the skin of a good eggplant, it won't take much effort to leave a dent, but it will heal very quickly. Leaving a dent without effort doesn't work, it doesn't work - the fruit is not ripe. But if the dent appears from the slightest touch and persists, then this eggplant is overripe (and, as we remember, they contain a dangerous concentration of solanine).
- The eggplant should be smooth to the touch. If you touch it from all sides, there should be no soft spots - this is a sure sign of an overripe or spoiled vegetable.
- At home, you can make a final check by cutting the vegetables in half. If some of the grains are dark in color or have an unpleasant odor, then that product should be sent to the basket immediately. In a safe eggplant, the flesh is white and does not darken in the air. But a greenish color and rapid darkening on contact with air indicate the presence of a large amount of toxin.
If you still have concerns about the presence of solanine in the eggplant, then cut it into pieces and soak it in water, changing it several times.
Reviews of gardeners
Above in the video, you have already seen the varieties of ornamental vegetable crops grown by our gardeners. Eggplants grow well, especially if the summer resident has experience in growing. Consider a few reviews from those who have already harvested yellow beautiful fruits.
When attacked by a tick or virus, you can use standard remedies. They are good at fighting pests and diseases.
Ornamental varieties will gradually gain popularity among our gardeners. Learn to grow them today, because you can surprise others with such bright unusual fruits. If the fruits are overripe, don't be discouraged: they look great in a vase.
Video
You can also watch a video where they will explain to you what solanine is and why it is so dangerous.
Eggplants are a very healthy product, from which a huge number of dishes are prepared in the cuisines of all peoples of the world. Besides an impressive array of vitamins and minerals, eggplants are fairly low in calories. You should be aware of the danger of poisoning with this vegetable, but this is not a reason to completely exclude eggplant from the menu. By taking a series of precautions, you can protect yourself and your family from poisoning and provide your health with a valuable source of vitamins.
Choosing the best varieties of eggplant from lilac to white and green
Today's eggplant hybrids and varieties are so diverse in shape, size and color of fruits that one can only wonder at the quirks of nature and the achievements of breeders! In addition to the usual elongated shape of eggplants, there are also cylindrical, pear-shaped, sickle-shaped, ovoid, oval, spherical and even serpentine fruits. By weight, eggplants of different varieties also vary greatly: from small one-hundred-gram fruits to weighty eggplants under two kilos.
