Abstract
Indospicine, a hepatotoxic arginine analog, occurs in leguminous plants of the Indigofera genus and accumulates in the tissues of grazing animals that consume these plants. Furthermore, indospicine has caused toxicity in dogs following consumption of indospicine-contaminated meat; however, the potential impact on human health is unknown. The present study was designed to determine the effect of simulated human gastrointestinal digestion on the release and degradation of indospicine from contaminated camel meat following microwave cooking. Results showed no significant (p > 0.05) indospicine degradation during cooking or in vitro digestion. However, approximately 70% indospicine was released from the meat matrix into the liquid digesta during the gastric phase (in the presence of pepsin) and increased to >90% in the intestinal phase (with pancreatic enzymes). Following human consumption of contaminated meat, this soluble and more bioaccessible fraction of intact indospicine could be readily available for absorption by the small intestine, potentially circulating indospicine throughout the human body to tissues where it could accumulate and cause detrimental toxic effects.
Highlights
The non-proteinogenic amino acid indospicine (L-6-amidino-2-amino-hexanoic acid) is a hepatotoxic arginine analog (Figure 1) found widely in plants of the Indigofera genus [1]
Has been linked with poisoning of grazing livestock [2], and the deaths of dogs consuming contaminated meat from livestock that had grazed on these plants [5,17]
Surveys of camel meat collected in Australia from animals killed in the field and in abattoirs have demonstrated significant levels of indospicine residues above detectable limits (0.05 mg/kg), with meat from individual camels having levels up to
Summary
The non-proteinogenic amino acid indospicine (L-6-amidino-2-amino-hexanoic acid) is a hepatotoxic arginine analog (Figure 1) found widely in plants of the Indigofera genus [1]. This genus contains over 700 species distributed across tropical Africa, Asia, Australia, and North and South. Indospicine has been found to be directly toxic to livestock [2], and to act as a foliage. Indospicine been foundability to be to directly toxic to and tograzing act on as these a secondary secondary toxin due has to its unusual accumulate inlivestock tissues of[2], livestock plants toxin due to its unusual ability to accumulate in tissues of livestock grazing on these plants [3,4,5].
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