In article ,
Martin wrote:
On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 15:38:59 +0100, Janet Baraclough..
wrote:

The evidence was that some of the alkaloids (e.g. solanin) are known
to be teratogenic (causing malformation of the foetus),(snip)

IIRC, in the 60's there was thought to be a link between pregnant
women eating potatoes which had been exposed to light and turned green
(raised solanin level), and spina bifida in their children. I can't
recall if the theory was proven. AFAIK it's a separate issue from
blight.

You remember correctly, Janet.

Except perhaps for the last sentence. If the papers I saw were correct,
it was a slightly different symptom of the same effect - they weren't
100% certain that the deduction was correct, but an awful lot of people
in the UK today don't get enough vitamin C.

It is possible that the malformations in Ireland were caused, not by
eating blighted potatoes, but because the blighted potatoes didn't
provide enough vitamin C to protect against the solanin from the
slightly green potatoes that they almost certainly also ate.

So, if you have any dicky potatoes, feed them to males and females
that can be guaranteed to be infertile. Seriously :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.