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25 July 2005

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Friends

I had some wonderful responses to the note I put on the listserv regarding
mesquite flour. Thanks to everyone. There were two substantial health
related issues that I thought might be useful to share with the group.

There was one question as to whether a severe reaction to mesquite grilled
food would carry over to a reaction from use of the flour. I can’t
definitively say no,  but I think this is highly unlikely for the following
reason. Maga published an article in Journal of Agriculture and Food
Chemistry, (1986) 34: 249-251. entitled “Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon
(PAH) composition of mesquite (Prosopis juliflora) smoke and grilled beef”

He analyzed 31 aromatic hydrocarbons(benzopyrene, benzoanthracene etc
derivatives) in the smoke of mesquite, hickory and on hamburger patties made
from 70%, 80% and 90% lean beef. The absolute amounts and percentages of
these compounds were a function of wood lignin composition, pyrolysis
temperature and fat content of the meat. Since none of these (other than
baking temperature of the flour which is made from the fruits and not the
wood) is involved with mesquite flour, it seems unlikely that the reaction
from meats  grilled over mesquite wood, would carry over to that of use of
the mesquite flour.

There was another question related to the toxicity of mesquite beans from
goats on the rangeland. This is a well documented occurrence and no doubt
happens. The problem arises in drought periods  when ruminant animals such
as sheep, goats and cattle have little else to eat than mesquite pods and in
this case mesquite pods consist of close to 100% of the diet for long
periods of time.  When this happens to ruminants, the high sugar in the pods
evidently represses the bacteria’s ability to digest cellulose in the rumen
and animals die with large balls of undigested mesquite pods in their
stomachs.

This interpretation  is borne out by the results of randomized, replicated
feeding trials under controlled conditions. In the following Masters theses
and scientific papers, when the ground mesquite was kept below 70% of the
total ration, good weight gain, or milk production was achieved(I have these
theses and papers).

Abdelgabbar, A.I. 1983. Feed utilization and body composition of Sudan
Desert Goats fed on mesquite (Prosopis chilensis). University of Khartoum,
Masters Thesis 130 pp.

Barros, N.A.M.T 1981. Effect of the substitution of molasses with Prosopis
pods in the nutrition of ruminant animals. (Translation from Portugese)
Masters Thesis 97  pp. Joao Pessoa Universidad Federal de Paraiba Brazil).

Silva,  D.S.D. 1982  Substitution of  wheat bran by ground Prosopis
juliflora pods in the rations of beef cattle in feedlots(Translation from
Portugese)  Masters Thesis 50 pp. Joao Pessoa Universidad Federal de Paraiba
Brazil).

Osman Mahgoub, Isam T. Kadim, Eugene H. Johnson, A. Srikandakumar, Naseeb M.
Al-Saqri, Abdullah S. Al-Abri, Andrew Ritchie (2005). The use of a
concentrate containing Meskit (Prosopis julifora) pods and date palm
by-products to replace commercial concentrate in diets of Omani sheep Animal
Feed Science and Technology 120 33–41


Nobre, F.V. 1982. Use of Prosopis flour as a feed for milk cows.
(Translation from Portugese)  Masters Thesis 74  pp. Joao Pessoa Universidad
Federal de Paraiba Brazil).

There is another area of potential toxicity for legumes. Many of the common
edible legumes(navy beans, soybeans, etc) contain proteinaceous inhibitors
called trypsin inhibitors and phytohemagglutinins in the seeds. Since these
inhibitors are proteins, by cooking these inhibitors are destroyed. Pak et
al., (1977) Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 28: 59-62
reported both trypsin inhibitors and phytohemagglutins in the seeds. Since
some mesquite flour processing techniques (like that of Casadefruta)
eliminate the seeds by a dry milling process and thus this is not an issue.
Even if the seeds were included in the flour,  a brief high temperature heat
treatment (212 F for 10 min) would inactivate the proteinaceous inhibitors.

Some legumes also contain toxic compounds such as cyanogenic glucosides and
alkaloids.  Pak et al., (1977) assayed for these chemical and found them
absent in Prosopis tamarugo. Additionally USDA scientists, Becker and
Grosjean (1980) A compositional study of pods of two varieties of mesquite
(Prosopis glandulosa, P velutina). J. Agric Food Chem. 28: 22-25) examined
various assays for cyanogenic glucosides in these two Prosopis species and
found none.

Becker and Grosjean(1980) also conducted a thorough analyses of the
saccarides in mesquite and found that sucrose accounted for about 95% of the
total sugars followed by the trisaccaride raffinose, which contains sucrose
linked to a galactose. Thus the reports of fructose in mesquite pods that
have been reputed to have a low glycemic index are erroneous.

I hope you don’t mind me boring you with these details.

With best wishes

Peter





Peter Felker
D'Arrigo Bros. Co
P. O. Box 850
Salinas, CA 93902
831 235 2847 (cell)
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