Many people who have tried or heard about roasted chestnuts have a desire to cook them at home. Trees immediately pop up in my memory, from which in the fall you can collect as many fruits as you like for free. However, do not rush to get them to the nearest park, because instead of a tasty treat, you can get health problems. And it's not even a matter of ecology.
Edible and inedible fruits
Chestnuts can belong to different families. The edible variety belongs to the beech, and the inedible (horse) to the horse-chestnut (Hippocastanaceae). Despite the same name, the fruits belong to different genera.
Edible chestnut grows in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Krasnodar Territory. All other fruits are unfit for human consumption. And those chestnuts that grow in city parks are exactly horse ones.
Often, edible chestnut is confused with inedible. Each of them can be identified using external characteristics. Inedible fruits have bright green bolls with many thorns and only one nut-like seed, while edible fruits can have from 1 to 4 fruits and a brown plyus. The former taste bitter, the latter sweetish.
Horse chestnut properties
Horse chestnut is definitely not edible. However, it can be used for medicinal purposes, i.e. as part of medicines. The fruits have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, analgesic, vasoprotective properties.
This type of chestnut is tasteless and even poisonous. The leaves, flowers, and the nuts themselves contain a substance called esculin. It can cause poisoning and even death. The symptomatology and intensity of intoxication is affected by the amount of substance that has entered the body.
Accidental consumption of chestnut in food can become the cause of various disturbances in the activity of internal systems and organs. Of the possible complications, it is worth highlighting:
- malfunctions of the gastrointestinal tract (diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, bloating);
- cramps in the arms and legs;
- allergy;
- tachycardia.
If the victim has any diseases of the liver, gastrointestinal tract, kidneys or blood, an exacerbation of the pathology is possible.
In case of horse chestnut poisoning, it is important to take measures to cleanse the body of the toxin. First of all, it is necessary to carry out a gastric lavage using a large amount of warm water. Further, symptomatic therapy should be carried out, which will depend on the disabled organs or systems. Severe cases require treatment in a hospital setting.
