Candlenut (Aleurites moluccana) Poison Antidote

First of all, Google for "poison control (your city)". If that doesn't help or takes too long, I've presented my own proposed antidote below. Please note that this is based on personal experience and knowledge, but has in no way been tested to the point of statistical proof. I posted this because I found almost no such data on the Web, and needed to find an antidote rapidly.

The Javanese people drink coconut water in case of accidental ingestion of raw candlenuts. You can try this if you have it on hand. I didn't. Here's what I did after ingesting about 5 raw candlenuts:

1. Drink 400ml of coconut cream. This will help to dilute the toxic candlenut oil, and saturate your fat absorption capability to some extent, preventing uptake into the bloodstream.

2. Take 1 level teaspoon of turmeric, and stir it into 200ml of water. If you don't have any, unsalted curry powder will have to do. Drink it all with 800IU of vitamin D3. Don't leave any powder in the glass. This will help to counteract any carcinogenic activity that may occur when the candlenut poison undergoes unpredictable chemical changes in your gut.

3. If you have grape skin extract pills, take one with water. If not, drink 200ml of red wine, or at worst, the same amount of red grape juice. If you don't have that, eat a couple handfuls of blueberries or red grapes or brown raisins. The goal here is to provide additional antitumor activity to complement the turmeric. We need to overwhelm any possible carcinogenicity triggered by the poison as it travels through the gut.

4. Eat 2 handfuls of nuts (not candlenuts!), preferably almonds. This will serve to further overwhelm your ability to absorb the oil contained in the candlenuts, and will provide vitamin E, a fat-soluble antiinflammatory. The selenium content may also provide antitumor activity, although not necessarily on a useful timescale.

5. Take 1g of fish oil. This fat-soluble substance will complement the vitamin E in the nuts to compete against the oils in the candlenuts, for both absorption and carcinogenic activity.

The main toxin in candlenuts is phorbol, which is water-soluble. (Many of its close chemical relatives are carcinogenic.) But I've tried to prevent absorption of the candlenut oil as well, as it might be an undiscovered secondary source of the toxic effects.

That's it!

When you've recovered (and hopefully had a chat with your local poison control center), here's what happened to me:

I have a rule that I never eat any new food without first reading about it from a trustworthy source. Certainly, I never eat more than one small piece the first time, in case I happen to trigger a dangerous allergic reaction. This one time, of course, I ignored both policies.

I was hungry for nuts while I was in the grocery store. So I snagged a bag of "Cander Nuts", which looked interesting, as I'd never tried them before. The bag was not labelled with any warnings.

By the time I got home, I was very hungry, as I still hadn't eaten. As it happened, I picked up a box of coconut cream during the same trip. Being a sucker for coconut cream, I tore open the box and swallowed about 100ml. (My gluttony might have saved me from a trip to the emergency room, as I just happened to have delivered the Javanese antidote immediately prior to ingesting the poison!)

Next, I grabbed a few candlenuts (about 5), and chucked them into my mouth. As I was chewing, I remembered that I ought to look them up on the Web. By the time I discovered that they were poisonous raw, I had just swallowed them!

I called California Poison Control, but no one answered after several minutes. Then the line went dead. (Thank you, bankrupt real estate market.)

Based on the only antidote info I could find on the Web, I needed to drink coconut water. But I didn't have any, and reasoned that any beneficial substance that could be found in coconut water, could be found in higher concentration in coconut cream. So I went on to drink 600ml (although I recommend 400ml, as I probably overdid it).

When I read about the tumor promotion activity of various phorbol derivatives, I thought of everything I had in the house that was water-soluble, and might counteract it. That's when I came up with the tumeric and grape skin extract.

Of course, I'll probably never know whether I got cancer from this event, which is probably unlikely anyway. On the other hand, I think I neutralized the poison, as I had no gastic problems whatsoever, save for a slightly stuffed feeling after drinking enough coconut fat for a week! Based on what I read, I should expect to be experiencing severe gastric distress at this point, which I am most definitely not.

If one day one person reads this blog, and it saves them from the poison, then I've spent my time well. And by the way, I did go back to the store and explain how their poorly labeled "Cander Nuts" were a public health hazard. They promised to contact the supplier.