Don't swallow santol seeds

Readers beware! From May until August, market stands are packed with a delicious yellow-orange fruit Filipinos love to eat. Just thinking of a ripe, soft, and juicy santol fruit can make our mouths water. Imagine it. Taste its sweet and sour juice. Gnaw at the tender ticklish fiber clinging to the seed. It’s so good… even good enough to swallow. Gulp!

Now, what happens? If you swallow a santol seed, the first crucial information is whether it’s the local or the Bangkok santol variety. If it’s from Bangkok, then the trip along your gut would be more exciting. You see, Bangkok seeds are much bigger, about three centimeters in length with sharper pointed edges. If you’re lucky, the fleshy seed will pass down your pharynx, then the esophagus and reach the stomach. In the gut, it will incubate for about three hours as the outer fibrous covering is digested and stripped away.

From here on, it’s a matter of luck. Having a bare santol seed in your gut is like carrying a bare knife in your pocket that can cut through your trousers anytime. Once ejected by the stomach, the sharper and deadlier seed or seeds now travel through the narrower and lengthy portions of your small intestines and then the large bowels.

If you’re young and healthy, those seeds may pass through without harm. But if you’re older and have some form of abnormality in your intestines, then it could easily get stuck, leading to an obstruction. The sharp edges may even perforate your bowels, leading to infection and death.

In the Philippines, it is estimated that 200 cases of surgical emergencies from swallowed santol seeds are seen yearly at our hospitals. Dr. Reynaldo O. Joson, chair of the Department of Surgery at Ospital ng Maynila, has been educating the public on the dangers of this seemingly harmless fruit. Dr. Joson says that if the patient dillydallies on consulting a doctor, then death can occur in 30-50 percent of cases. At the Ospital ng Maynila alone, several cases were operated on recently. This makes the delicious santol fruit a public health problem.

It’s hard to explain the Filipinos’ penchant for swallowing santol seeds, which can be likened to a circus act of swallowing pins and knives. Given that one seed can accidentally be swallowed, but there are some who consume a dozen santol seeds in one sitting. It’s silly. It’s dangerous. And it can obstruct and cut through the bowel linings.

A perforated gut will cause dirty feces to spill into one’s abdominal cavity. And since the stools are ridden with bacteria, these may easily infect the body and seep into the blood stream. This is what is known as sepsis or blood infection, and can quickly lead to death. For this reason, doctors too must be keen in asking patients with abdominal pain if they have touched any forbidden fruit lately.

What about other seeds? Is it safe to swallow tomato seeds or guava seeds? It’s much smaller, but can they lead to appendicitis instead? According to Dr. Joson, there are not enough data to say that such seeds cause appendicitis, injury or death. Tomato and guava seeds are very small, without sharp ends, and are therefore practically harmless. As you can see, it’s really about the size and shape of things and the tortuous passage through one’s gut. One thing’s for sure, don’t attempt to swallow a mango seed.

So if you and your co-workers are binging on a hearty meal of mouthwatering santol, tell them that it’s all right to eat the fruit. You can even treat it like a candy and extract as much juice as you can. But please, don’t swallow the killer seeds. It might be your last.

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DZRH radio program on health

We would like to invite you to listen or watch our latest radio program at DZRH (666 in the AM band). Our show, called Doctors on Call, airs every Saturday 5:30–6:30 p.m. My wife, Dr. Liza Ong, and I are the hosts of this public service program. During the show, we’ll be inviting guest-experts and tackling various health-related topics to educate our listeners.

Our DZRH program can also be seen live on RHTV via the internet (DZRH.tripod.com) and through Dream Cable TV and Cable link TV. Every week, we receive many questions from as far away as South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and, of course, Luzon, Visayas,d and Mindanao.

Previous guests on our show included PMA president and occupational medicine expert Dr. Oscar Tinio, PMA Committee head and thyroid expert Dr. Benigno Ong, UP-NIH director of genetics, Dr. Carmencita Padilla PGH ophthalmologist Dr. Manuel Agulto; and many others.

We are greatly indebted to DZRH veteran broadcaster Joe Taruc and Manila Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) president Ruperto Nicdao Jr. for inviting us to be part of the DZRH family.

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For a compilation of previous articles, you may check the website: docwillieandliza.com.