h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

That's a fascinating article.

For some time now I have been trying to find some more technical data on digestive enzymes and their role in food intolerances etc. I am particularly interested in diet and enzymes (like the persistent lactase in the European gut), mainly in relation to health in Australian Aboriginal communities. There seems to be a connection between lactose intolerance and the onset of Type I diabetes (IDDM).

I am also intrigued by a piece of information passed on to me by a colleague (who ticked off and didn't expand on his pronouncement) to do with a kangaroo meat specific enzyme in the gut of Indigenous Australians. This fits nicely with the Burke and Wills story:

Burke and Wills were the leaders of a group of British explorers who tracked off across Australia in the 1860's. Their main claim to fame was the fact that they died on the Cooper's Creek in far southwest Queensland, starving and totally lost.

The interesting snippet of info. I have is that they actually died stuffed to the gunnels with Nardoo, an Indigenous staple foodstuff. The local Aboriginal people had kindly shown them how to prepare this abundant plant, and then left so as not to overstress the food resources in the area. Nardoo is a type of fern. Apparently fern and fern products require a particular enzyme to be present in the gut so it can be broken down effectively. Otherwise, it just passes out largely unabsorbed and therefore useless as a source of nutrition. Europeans (apart from Gypsies) have not eaten fern products for many thousands of years, and have lost the relevant enzyme from their digestive systems, so poor old Burke and Wills died of malnutrition.

Now, good researcher ... can you give me some references on this???? Digestive enzymes, etc. etc. Please. It's one of those little things that has been driving me mad for years, and I haven't found A THING anywhere.

It would be really useful, as I sometimes give lectures on Indigenous health, and this is something I'd find invaluable.

Hi SF. I've only just noticed your query as it didn't appear on my PS (For some reason, comments made to GE's don't appear in the PS of the author, so one has to keep re-visiting ones Entries to see if anyone has made a comment).

I'll give your comments some thought and get back to you.

Did you find this reference? It seems to contain the info you require.

http://www.mdbc.gov.au/education/encyclopedia/wildlife/flora/nardoo.htm

Thanks for that. I'll look forward to anything else you can come up with.

St. F.

Just thought I'd pass on the original reference (in case you're interested). Now I'm on the right track ...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=8152477

All I have to do now is trot off to the library.

Thanks again.

for that. I'd never heard of this before you mentioned it, so I'll add a bit to my notess.