Some country folk friends from all around the Philippines insist it is dangerous, even deadly, to eat jackfruit and drink at the same time. I’ll take their word for it, and don’t feel like experimenting.
Jackfruit (aka langka) is kind of sticky, with an almost gum-latex consistency when ripe. They don’t seem to think of it as a toxicity issue; i.e. not an alkaloidal poison, but rather something to do with the rubbery latex.
Any thoughts ? Is it a consequence of the latex, or some other toxic reaction ? How would alcohol act on it to cause risk ?
Aww, c’mon Jorge be brave, go on and try it! :). Anyway, I never heard of that one before. Then again langka, here in California as I have seen comes only in cans, and it’s not that flavorful that way anyway (better in ice cream).
Hmmm… ok, but JillGat, I’m guessing it was canned fruit ? The number (dozens)and variety (all different walks of life, all around the country) of persons reporting this led me to wonder. And in my experience, professional & personal, over there, Filipinos aren’t often wrong on their ethnobotanical folklore.
Rephrasing it perhaps, let’s put aside any alkaloidal toxicity (the more specific explanations given sounded like some kinda intestinal blockage).
Drinking booze while chewing gum certainly changes the gum’s texture; what is happening there, chemically ? What would happen afterwards ? Does the gum return to rubber ?
That sounds like a case of terminal gastric distress… which was what they were implying.
Now just gotta find 1)what similarity (if any) 'twixt jackfruit sap/latex and natural rubber… and 2) would swelled rubber indeed torque out one’s insides ? (Couldn’t resist, Torq - or is that short for Torquemada ?)
I’ve never had jackfruit. I’m pretty sure I had never HEARD of it before a month or so ago. So I don’t know what the rubbery guck in them is.
However… when I said “natural rubber”, what I really meant was “not some kind of miracle synthetic rubber specially designed not to swell when exposed to organic solvents”. Unless the goop in jackfruit is a marvelous natural variety of silicone rubber or some specialty polymer like Tygon, I’d expect it to swell up when exposed to alcohol.
Rubber also tends to get sticky after having been exposed to solvents. That can’t possibly help matters any, if impaction is the primary concern.