High cassava consumption without cyanide exposure in Kinshasa, in former Zaire

Abstract

In Kinshasa, the capital of former Zaire, cassava is the dominant staple food and it is mainly supplied from Bandundu and Bas‐Zaire regions. In Bandundu, consumption of short‐soaked and insufficiently dried cassava roots has caused high cyanide exposure that was associated to acute poisonings and outbreaks of the paralytic disease konzo. As no such effects have been reported from the capital, we investigated if cassava consumption resulted in cyanide exposure in Kinshasa. Food frequency interviews with 205 women showed that 85% consumed a cassava‐based product daily. Mean ± SEM urinary thiocyanate, the main cyanide metabolite, was 12 ± 1 μmol/1 in women in Kinshasa compared to 558 ± 47 μmol/1 among women in a rural area in Bandundu where short‐processed cassava was consumed. The absence of cyanide exposure in Kinshasa may be explained by disappearance of cyanogens from roots during transport, storage, and careful drying preceding mechanical milling done by all women in Kinshasa.