Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 6, Number 4, 1 April 1989 — He Mau Ninau Ola [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

He Mau Ninau Ola

Some Health Questions by Kekuni Blaisdell, M.D.

Ka Poi A Me Na Mu: Mokuna Ekolu (Part III)

Nihau: E ke kauka, my high-school kaikamahine (daughter) tells me that sour poi is due to germs, whieh make grey fuzz on the poi surface, and, therefore, we should eat only fresh poi. Does this mean I must give up 'ono sour poi whieh I prefer to fresh poi? Pane: Poi, like other fresh

foods, contains mū (germs)— some occasionally harmful, some harmless, and some occasionally beneficial. Nā mea heluhelu (readers) need to know of the conditions whieh may promote illness by such mū, or otherwise. The first careful study of the souring of poi by mū was done 56 years ago, in 1933, by UH professor Owen Allen and his wahine (wife) Ethel. They found that freshly-prepared poi contains various kinds of acid-producing streptococci (dot-shaped mCT) and lactobacilli (rod-shaped mū) whieh cause fermentation or "souring" of poi, as with waiu (milk), but whieh do not cause human illness. In fact, as we shall soon leam, these mū ean prevent sickness; no laila, they are beneficial. Other contaminating mū from poi factory ea (air), wai (water) and mikini (equipment) persist for only 3 to 4 hours and then fail to survive or grow thereafter because of the acid conditions of souring poi. These contaminants include typhoidlike bacteria, whieh ean cause human infection, and yeasts, molds and fungi, whieh form the "grey fuzz" on the surface of "spoiled" poi, but whieh do not ordinarily cause human disease. In 1948, one of professor Allen's haumāna (students) who succeeded him on the UH faculty, O.A. Bushnell, and his colleague George Fung, tested the possibility that poi might be a medium for spreading harmful typhoid-like mū, such as E. eoli, E.typhosa, Salmonella and Shigella, under the usual conditions of preparing, storing, mixing (ma ka lima [with the hand]) and serving poi for eating. Their results revealed an apparent paradox — non-refrigerated, room-temperature-stored poi was safer than refrigerated poi! The explanation was as demonstrated eight years previously by the two Allens. Poi, eontaminated by typhoid-like mū, is potentially infectious only during the first one or two days after it is prepared and mixed. Thereafter, fermentation (souring) by acid producing non-harmful mū,

somehow destroys the harmful contaminating mu. On the other hand, refrigeration, by inhibiting the growth of acid-producing mū, delays the disappearance of harmful typhoid-like mO, whieh may persist in the poi for as long as six days in refrigerated poi, and no laila, ean cause human infection. The available information indicates that typhoid and related contagious infections did not occur in preWestern Hawai'i. Akā, less harmful kinds of mū, occurring in the human na'au (gut), probably were present to cause "focal" infections in ancient times. If so, poi contaminated with human kukae (excreta) by Iima kanaka (human hands) in preparing poi, or sharing poi from a eommon ealabash, couId have caused spread of infection, but we have no evidence to support such speculation. (See Fig. 1) After the introduction of fatal epidemic continued

tions such as tuberculosis by foreigners beginning in 1778, poi was again to be implicated as a mode of transmission, as will be considered in He Mau Ninau Ola i keia mahina a'e. 'Oiai, be assured that sour poi is less likely to contain harmful mū than freshly-prepared or refrigerated poi.

Figure 1. "Children Eating Poi" by August Plum, from the voyageof the Galathea, October1846. Were harmful mū (germs) also shared?