Poisonous Plant Contamination of Edible Plants discusses the chemical and toxicological aspects of poisonous plants that frequently contaminate edible plants, such as grains and vegetables, thereby causing toxicity in humans. Topics covered include hepatotoxic plant contamination; cyanogenic plant contamination; contamination of edible plants by poisonous ones; chemical constituents; pharmacological and toxicological data; and the botanical characteristics of toxic plants. Botanists, food researchers, horticulturalists, and others interested in the contamination of edible plants by poisonous plants will find this book a valuable source of information.

Clearly linked to consumption of foods, beverages, and drinking water that contain pathogenic microbes, toxins, or other toxic agents, foodborne diseases have undergone a remarkable change of fortune in recent decades, from once rare and insignificant malaises to headline-grabbing and deadly outbreaks. Unquestionably, several factors have combined to make this happen. These include a prevailing demand for the convenience of ready-to-eat or heat-and-eat manufactured food products that allow ready entry and survival of some robust, temperature-insensitive microorganisms; a drastic reduction in the costs of air, sea, and road transportation that has taken some pathogenic microorganisms to where they were absent previously; an expanding world population that has stretched the boundary of human activity; and an ageing population whose weakened immune functions provide a fertile ground for opportunistic pathogens to invade and thrive. Given the diversity of causative agents (ranging from viruses, bacteria, yeasts, filamentous fungi, protozoa, helminthes, toxins, to toxic agents), and the ingenuity of pathogenic microbes to evolve through genetic reassortment, horizontal gene transfer, and/or random genetic mutation, it has become an enormous challenge to understand how foodborne agents are able to evade host immune defenses and induce diseases, and also to develop and apply innovative approaches for improved diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of foodborne diseases. Handbook of Foodborne Diseases summarizes the latest findings on more than 100 foodborne diseases and their causative agents. With contributions from international experts on foodborne pathogens, toxins, and toxic agents research, this volume provides state-of-the-art overviews on foodborne diseases in relation to their etiology, biology, epidemiology, clinical presentation, pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Apart from offering a comprehensive textbook for undergraduate and postgraduate students in food, medical, and veterinary microbiology, this volume constitutes a valuable reference on foodborne diseases for medical professionals and health authorities, and forms an informative educational resource for the general public.

This volume of Recent Advances in Phytochemistry is the Proceedings of the 1979 Annual Meeting of the Phytochemical Society of North America held August 12-15 at Northern Illinois University, DeKalb. It contains a series of exciting chapters which start with the potential use of plant products as fuels and medicinals, their possible effects in carcinogenesis and use in steroidal hormone synthesis. The volume continues with a series of chapters which examine the importance of plant constituents in the breeding and selection of corn, cruciferous vegetables, soybeans and citrus fruits. All the contributions illustrate the wide importance of research which improves the health and the economic and social well being of mankind. The authors are to be congratulated on their lucid exposition of the progress of research in their subject area and for their patience while this book was being produced. The members of the Phytochemical Society of North America can feel proud of having another of their excellent symposia series in print. It is fitting, therefore, that this volume is dedicated to one of the founder members of the Society, Ted Geissman, who has inspired so many of us with his wisdom, teaching and wonderful support of all our endeavours. He was a giant among phytochemists and is sorely missed by all who knew him.

The book reviews the knowledge about the nutritional value of the potato and its role in the nutrition of both children and adults.

Transgenic Plants, Volume 86, the latest release in the series Advances in Botanical Research, brings together information needed by many teachers, researchers and managers who have to consider biotechnology from a scientific or legal point-of-view. It presents authors who bring their long personal experience on a given subject. Although the subjects are technical in nature, the take-home message of each chapter is understandable by non-specialists. - Encompasses various aspects of the GMO debate (its historical background, current status, recent research outcomes, potential future developments) - Written by highly competent authors from all continents - Based on facts and written in a dispassionate and non-polemical tone