Exploring the Health Benefits of Cottonseed Oil

[Math Is Hard]

I love to eat those smoked oysters in cottonseed oil and it looks like the oil is reasonably healthy. I've read that it's one of the most unsaturated oils, comparable to safflower oil and corn oil.

http://www.cottonseed.com/publications/facts.asp]..has[/PLAIN] a 2:1 ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fatty acids. Its fatty acid profile generally consists of 70% unsaturated fatty acids including 18% monounsaturated (oleic) and 52% polyunsaturated (linoleic) and 26% saturated (primarily palmitic and stearic).

But then I read on another website that it might be very unhealthy because of all the pesticides used on cotton crops.

Cottonseed oil is often used. This is because, quite simply, cottonseed oil is a waste product of the cotton industry, so it costs the food manufacturers next to nothing to procure a plentiful supply. The only problem with this is that cotton is not a food crop, therefore is not subject to the same restrictions as to pesticide and fungicide levels. In fact, cotton is one of the most heavily sprayed crops in the world, due to its susceptibility to the threats of insect predators, such as the boll weevil.

What do you think?

 

[pattylou]

Ooooh. I think the pesticide concern is more likely to be harmful, than any health benefits from lower saturation. IMO.

Me, I love sesame oil. Intense.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Thanks, Patty. How ironic that your answer came just as I popped open a tin of smoked oysters! I will have to see if anyone makes them in any other kind of oil. So far I have only seen them in cottonseed oil and water.

Or maybe I could buy the water packed kind and put them in some other kind of oil. In water alone, they just don't taste as good to me.

 

[Moonbear]

Well, it took a heck of a lot of digging to find a source on this other than sites that al seem to be parroting the same information without citing any sources for it. I'm surprised that with so many sites stating this as fact, it's so hard to find any reputable place that actually addresses the question (I figured I'd find it at Ag Extension sites if they get asked the question often)...usually that's where I can dig up this sort of information (and is where I found the one, almost equally unsatisfying answer...but it is a newsletter...I would have preferred a technical paper showing testing is done and what the outcome is). I have one more place I'll try searching tonight and will get back with the result if I find anything.

http://outreach.missouri.edu/hesnutrnews/fnr88-97/fnr89-9.htm

Pesticide Residues In Cottonseed Oil?

Many consumers ask if cottonseed oil is especially high in
pesticide residues. Perhaps this concern centers around the fact
that the cotton boll is the prime target of persistent pests and
is sprayed accordingly.

Nicki and David Goldbeck, in their "Guide to Good Food," explain
that the cotton raised for oil is grown mostly in Iowa, Nebraska,
and the Dakotas, not in the South. The shorter growing season
there prevents maturation of the fiber-producing cotton boll.
Thus dependence on insecticides in growing cotton in those areas
is no greater than for any other oil-bearing crops.

Leni Reed, too, in her March/April 1989 Supermarket Savvy
Newsletter, explained that cottonseed oil is no higher in
insecticide residues than any other oil. In fact, Tom
Wedegaertner, Assistant Director of Research and Education with
the National Cottonseed Products Association in Memphis,
Tennessee, explained that the processes of oil refinement,
specifically deodorization, remove pesticide residues as well as
other impurities.
The deodorization process calls for blowing steam through hot oil
under a vacuum. The steam removes volatile compounds such as
monoglycerides, some pigments, free fatty acids, fatty oxidation
products, pesticide residues and other undesirable compounds.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Thanks, MB. That's one of the things I was curious about - if there was any process involved to remove the pesticides from the oil. It seemed like it would be virtually impossible, but I guess not. I had no idea that oils were "deodorized".

That first site I quoted, well, it's obvious why they would say nothing but good things about cottonseed oil. And then the second site- well, they have a good point, and it seemed logical, but it's hard to know how scientific their information is. I never know who to trust, so I thought it would be best to ask some biologists like you and Patty.

I am trying to be more careful about believing what I read on the internet and hear on the news. For instance, I had bought into all the hype about how terrible Olestra was, until I actually learned what it was in biology class. Now I think it's a pretty amazing product.

 

[Moonbear]

The disappointing thing is that I can't find anything about how they process it in order to corroborate that article. I'm just surprised how hard it is to find information on this...refuting, supporting, anything remotely scientific. I even checked Agricola, which is an index for agricultural literature (I don't often use it because the information I'm looking for usually comes up with a pubmed search, but once in a while it's good to pick up stuff from a purely agricultural perspective), and nothing relevant came up in that search either (my first attempt came up with nothing, so broadened my search terms and still only came up with 5 articles, none of which were relevant to this question).

I'd like to assume that this means that it is such a complete non-issue that nobody has bothered doing any studies on it, but I can't rule out that it's not out there somewhere and I'm missing it. I'm finding more on Monsanto's genetically engineered cotton crop that's supposed to reduce the need for pesticides by the introduction of a gene that gives it resistance to boll infestation. I don't know how common that crop is, or if it's even being commercially grown yet.

Anyone here from a cotton-producing state who knows anyone they can ask about this?

 

[DocToxyn]

I'm sure that Moonbear has exhausted many of the search directions that I would take on this topic, so I'll just give my thoughts on this and then post again if I find anything further.

I can't imagine that there aren't some FDA regulations on the quality of cottonseed oil used for human consumption. I really can't buy that line about "cotton is not a food crop, therefore is not subject to the same restrictions as to pesticide and fungicide levels" . Perhaps there are regions of the US that do use significant amounts of pesticides in their cotton idustry, but I doubt that also cater to the human food side of the equation.
The analytical tests for pesticide residue in food likes oils, etc are rather routine types of analyses and I would imagine are done on a regular basis. If there were outrageously high levels of pesticides in such a food product, it would have been discovered some time ago and rectified. I would think that any risk associated with these foods is no greater than any other commercial food product. One might be more concerned about the by-products from the smoking process...hhhmmm, maybe I'll look that up too.

 

[DocToxyn]

Here's what I found on the EPA side of things.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 185
[OPP-300335A; FRL-5357-7]

Revocation of Pesticide Food Additive Regulations

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Final rule.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: EPA has made a final determination regarding 26 food additive
regulations (FARs) for 7 pesticides that were previously proposed for
revocation on the grounds that the FARs violated the Delaney clause in
section 409 of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA). Today,
EPA is revoking 13 FARs because they violate the Delaney clause and the
remaining 13 FARs because they are not needed to prevent adulterated food.

EFFECTIVE DATE: This final rule is effective May 21, 1996.




Cottonseed oil. The current section 408 tolerance for oxyfluorfen
on cottonseed is 0.05 ppm (40 CFR 180.381). Evaluation of new residue
data indicates that the tolerance should be reduced to .02 ppm. Based
on the HAFT of 0.01 ppm for cottonseed and a concentration factor of
3.3, the expected residue in cottonseed oil is .04 ppm. Cottonseed oil
is not a RTE processed food and once diluted by a factor of 11, which
accounts for the minimum level of dilution of cottonseed oil in
preparing RTE food, the residues in the RTE food items are not expected
to exceed the adjusted section 408 RAC tolerance of .02 ppm. Therefore
a section 409 FAR is not needed. EPA will propose to establish Maximum
Residue Limits under section 701 of FFDCA for oxyfluorfen in or on
cottonseed oil.


HAFT: highest average field trial
RTE: ready to eat
RAC: raw agricultural commodity
FFDCA: Federal food, drug and cosmetic act
FAR: food additive regulation

I know it's a lot of jargon and such, but it basically seems to state that cottonseed oil for human consumption is regularly monitored for pesticide content and currently does not exceed the limits established by the powers that be. Here's the link to the page if you really want to examine the whole document.

 

[Moonbear]

Here's what I found on the EPA side of things.



I know it's a lot of jargon and such, but it basically seems to state that cottonseed oil for human consumption is regularly monitored for pesticide content and currently does not exceed the limits established by the powers that be. Here's the link to the page if you really want to examine the whole document.

Thanks for hunting that down. I suspected something had to be out there...it wouldn't make sense for something entering the human food chain to NOT be regulated. Glad you found something to support that.

I found a lot of sites claiming cottonseed oil can be used as a bug repellant...one site recommended mixing it with dish detergent to spray on plants...for what it's worth.

 

[Ouabache]

This certainly has opened a virtual can of worms regarding how much the EPA or USDA are doing as watchdogs for our health. Kudos and accolades to DocToxyn & Moonbear for their persistence in researching this question.

Though I noticed in DocToxyn reference, it only refers to the one pesticide oxyfluorfen (an herbicide*).

There are actually a multitude of pesticides used on cotton. Such as the insecticides: "aldicarb, phorate, methamidophos and endosulfan" http://www.essentialbiosafety.info/dbase.php?action=Submit&hstIDXCode=7&trCode=ECBOXY . herbicides (besides oxyfluorfen) mentioned on that reference include: bromoxynil and ioxynil.
Other herbicides that may be used on cotton include: paraquat, quizalofop, dimethipin, tribufos, ethephon and sodium chlorate & diuron ref. Then we have fungicides such as: chloroneb, metalaxyl,Vitavax, Terraclor (Pentachloronitrolbenzene), Apron (mefenoxam)ref. Other fungicides on cotton include: Iprodione, Etridiazole ref There are rodenticides: warfarin, coumatetralyl, difenacoum, brodifacoum, bromadiolone, calciferol and zinc phosphide ref and nematicides: Telone II, Temik 15G, Nemacur 15G ref.

I suspect we are only seeing here, the tip of the iceberg of pesticides used on cotton.. Hopefully EPA and USDA are keeping tabs on how much of each, are allowed into foodgrade cottonseed oil.

Glossary:
*herbicide: kills undesired plants in the vicinity of cultivated crops, that compete with cultivated crops for nutrients, water and sunlight...
insecticide: kills bugs
fungicide: kills fungi
nematicide: kills nematodes
rodenticide: kills rodents

 

[Moonbear]

This certainly has opened a virtual can of worms regarding how much the EPA or USDA are doing as watchdogs for our health. Kudos and accolades to DocToxyn & Moonbear for their persistence..

Though I noticed in DocToxyn reference, it only refers to the one pesticide oxyfluorfen (an herbicide*).

There are actually a multitude of pesticides used on cotton.

That could be one reason it's so hard to find information searching just on "pesticides" and "cottonseed oil". It might be that the articles are listed by each individual compound used, and possibly under the chemical formula name rather than brand names, so our searches just aren't turning over the right leaves.

 

[Evo]

Well, I love smoked oysters & mussels, so I'm just going to risk it. I probably get more pesticide on me from dousing my rose bushes in one day than eating smoked oysters every day for the rest of my life.

 

[pattylou]

My instinct is pure gut reaction. I don't think you're likely to be benefiting from the reduced saturation of cottonseed oil... and on the other hand my gut reaction (unscientific) is that some pesticide residues *could* end up in plant products. (Evo's point about applying pesticide ios a good one, and so the levels in a tin of oysters is probably negligible. )

Moonbear: did you search pubmed? I got a fair few hits when I looked for "cottonseed oil" pesticide... But many were from other countries or had no abstracts.

MIH: Hmmm. Oysters... I have become wary of seafood in general with regards to the mercury levels that are being found in some of the higher tropic level seafood like tuna. I love smoked trout - but my gut pipes up again and tells me that it will be the mercury in the trout, not possible residues in the cottonseed oil, that are harmful.

Lower food chain animals, like oysters, are probably still fine in regards to mercury levels.

 

[Moonbear]

Moonbear: did you search pubmed? I got a fair few hits when I looked for "cottonseed oil" pesticide... But many were from other countries or had no abstracts.

I hadn't until now...just a hunch that I was either going to pull up a bunch of stuff where cottonseed oil was used as a delivery vehicle, and that it wasn't going to bring up anything related to the oil itself. I just tried a search now using cottonseed oil pesticide residue and came up with 13 articles, all but two of which are older than 20 years old, and none of them have abstracts, and not all of them seem to be relevant, and yes, most are in non-English languages, so nothing I can read or relevant to US agriculture.

I would think the USDA and FDA would be regulating this; even if it's a by-product of another industry, as soon as it hits the human food chain, it should be falling under the oversight of one of those two agencies.

 

[Math Is Hard]

MIH: Hmmm. Oysters... I have become wary of seafood in general with regards to the mercury levels that are being found in some of the higher tropic level seafood like tuna. I love smoked trout - but my gut pipes up again and tells me that it will be the mercury in the trout, not possible residues in the cottonseed oil, that are harmful.

Lower food chain animals, like oysters, are probably still fine in regards to mercury levels.

I know I sure as heck won't eat any raw oysters anymore. The smoked ones get cooked after they are sealed up in the can so I think they are OK. My mom decided to prepare some oysters on the halfshell for my stepdad once when they were dating. That romantic dinner resulted in CHOLERA!

I probably am ingesting a lot of mercury. I worry about that sometimes. I love seafood. I also wonder how soon fishing will resume in the Gulf of Mexico, and if people will end up getting sick if they start up again too soon. That water must be pretty polluted near the coast now.

 

[sssddd]

You can always do a simple mercury or lead test. Dont they sell those in stores now?

As for chloera, well that's just bad oysters lol.

 

[23 concerned]

Hi PF Mentor,
The cottonseed plant was ‘grand fathered’ in as a food crop sometime in the 1970’s by the FDA here in the U.S.. All food crops are regulated as to what pesticides and fungicides can be sprayed on them to be within ‘safe’ guidelines in regards to human consumption. The Cotton plant does NOT come under any such guidelines because it was 'added' to the list as an afterthought, and no one placed it under the same rules as other food crops.

Cotton seeds often develop a fungus while they are in storage awaiting processing into cottonseed oil. A Mercury based fungicide is sprayed on the seeds to prevent this fungus. There are no regulations on this spraying. Often the fungus is already present on the seeds and the result is aflatoxin, a fungal secondary metabolite that remains on the seeds. Gossypol is the naturally occurring poison, which is in the cottonseeds already.

Gossypol is often defined as the deep amber ‘color’ of the cottonseed oil once it has been pressed. Gossypol is a 'color' and it is a poison in that gossypol is often used as an insect spray on other plants. Once the cottonseeds are processed the oil that is pressed from them remains a deep golden color. So on the seeds you will find Mercury, and the metabolite aflatoxin, plus within the seed is the poison, gossypol. All of these substances are in the cottonseed oil that is why it is a 'cheap' oil to manufactures of various foods. The danger of the aflatoxin is that a person can develop allergy to fungus by being made 'sensitive' from ingesting metabolite aflatoxin.

Crude cottonseed oil with all of the gossypol remaining within, has been tested in China as a method of birth control for men. Only some of the men who ate ‘crude’ cottonseed oil in cooking, in this test, developed the inability to produce viable sperm. A side effect of this test was that the men who became sterile also developed heart disease because their bodies were depleted of Potassium. I have not found what happened to the women in this test. This test lasted from the 1920’s up to the 1980’s. The Chinese government is withholding much of the data from this prolonged test. I am a researcher on cottonseed oil because I have had a devastating life long allergy to this oil yet the cottonseed oil industry claims that since there is very little protein in cottonseed oil therefore it is impossible to be allergic to it. Twenty percent of all people in the U.S. are allergic to cottonseed oil that is why cottonseed oil is included in all skin scratch allergy tests done at professional allergist’s, full medical doctors, offices. When allergic you will get large red welts where the test is done on your skin. How they do the test is to place a drop of the substance being tested, on your skin, and a fresh needle is used to scratch your skin. With each substance that is tested a fresh, new needle is used. There are over 200 common allergens tested in the skin allergy test. It takes over two hours to do this test but is well worth the trouble to find out what is causing problems like asthma, cystic acne, and other illnesses.
Many persons allergic to cottonseed oil get cystic acne and feel itching under the skin after eating anything containing cottonseed oil.

Monsanto Chemical now owns Delta & Pine Land (D&PL), which is the largest cottonseed/cottonseed oil company in the World! I could easily go on with ten pages about cotton/cottonseed/cottonseed oil but I have given enough information for the ‘curious’ to do further research on cottonseed oil and the cottonseed oil industry.
A hint here is that gossypol is being tested as a ‘cure’ for cancer, and it appears it is destroying tumors in this test, yet when rainbow trout were fed cottonseed granules for one year these fish developed carcinomas, which you know is cancer.

In a sense I am a 'lucky' person in that I found out that cottonseed oil was causing my cystic acne, and I stopped eating everything that contained cottonseed oil including those yummy french fries from McDonald's. After I stopped ingesting cottonseed oil in all fast foods and in breads etc... my cystic acne stopped and didn't return.
What is cottonseed oil doing to your insides, if it is not showing on the outside?

23 curious
.

 

[turbo]

Thank you for the informative post, 23. There is a lot of stuff in our food-supply that is either unregulated or so loosely regulated that the rules are useless.

 

[jim mcnamara]

23 curious

You should cite sources for all of those claims in your post. Not newpaper articles, but something from a government publication or a scientific journal.

Thanks.

example of what I mean: gossypol is a poison -
We're not here to argue, but a post with dozens of claims needs support

 

[23 concerned]

Thanks Jim, I do have the souces and will post either later tonight or tomorrow morning. I wanted to get people interested enough to look on the Internet themselves to find the information by using the 'keywords' I provided for them. I am a certified BIS/Web Master myself and I thought this was the way to go. Thank you for letting me know how you like it to be done.
23 concerned
.

 

[23 concerned]

And my sources are government and scientific sources.
23 concerned
.

 

[23 concerned]

Jim, Here are two references for you that you will find interesting.

If you have aol, as I do, you may want to x out the oblong aol search box on your home page screen because aol likes to direct its users only to sites that are advertisers of aol. In other words, aol can sometimes censor web sites.

Instead of aol search a better search engine is Beaucoup from which you may enter Google or Yahoo or many other search engines. Beaucoup in French means 'many' and many it is. I like Beaucoup because it never censors my searches.

Beaucoup/General Searches/Google
This will bring you to the Google search engine.
Plug in the following on Google;
http://www.Bioscreening.net/glossary/gossypol/cottonseed-drug

On the first page of Bioscreening.net you will find information including the following:

“Additional information about Gossypol
Gossipol, Gossypol Dipotassium Salt; Gossypol Sodium Salt; Gossypol, (+)-Isomer; Gossypol, (+-)-Isomer; Gossypol, (-)-Isomer; Dipotassium Salt, Gossypol; Sodium Salt, Gossypol.
A dimeric sesquiterpene found in cottonseed (GOSSYPIUM). The (-) isomer is active as a male contraceptive (CONTRACEPTIVE AGENTS, MALE) whereas toxic symptoms are associated with the (+) isomer.”

On this page click on the link Cottonseed Drug to go the page with the following:
The third paragraph states the following about gossypol being a natural toxin, which as you know is a poison.
“Gossypol in cotton is a natural toxin present in the plant that protects it from insects. Its name is derived from the scientific name of cotton ( Gossypium spp.) and phenol, its main chemical structure.”

The fourth paragraph states;
“Cottonseed can poison cattle yet gossypol is an old, abandoned male contraceptive used in China in the 1920’s. After studies in the 1970’s it was abandoned because some men remained infertile after stopping treatment and some developed hypokalemia (potassium shortage in the blood, which can lead to serious heart problems). Although in 1998 the World Health Organization said research on its use for contraception should be abandoned, Chinese researchers are still testing low doses.”

I hope you enjoy reading this scientific publication. I have read elsewhere that the testing in China on men continued into the 1980’s. The Chinese have not revealed all that they learned from this lengthy test.

In Beaucoup plug in the following web link to go to this government website reporting on the cancer trial.
http://clinicaltrial.gov/ct2/show/NCT00540722?cond=%22Recurrent+Glioblastoma+Multiforme%22&rank=24

The following is quoted from the first page.
“Secondary Outcome Measures:
· Acute and late toxicities of gossypol as assessed by NCI CTCAE v3.0 [ Designated as safety issue: Yes ]
· Tumor response rate [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
· 6-month progression-free survival [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
· Correlation of overall survival with changes in potential serum biomarkers, baseline tumor protein expression, and gene methylation status [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

Estimated Enrollment: 56
Study Start Date: January 2008
“
Please note that “the answer to wither the treatment can be toxic is YES.

Gossypol is the naturally toxic substance that is in the cottonseed. It gives the oil it’s deep amber color, which when refined becomes a deep yellow color. I have read and you can research this point, that the evidence of color means that a certain level of toxicity remains within cottonseed oil.

Time is my enemy. I never have enough of it to do all I want to do.
I will come back and give you more reference when it is possible for me to do so. In the meantime you have Beaucoup as a ‘search tool’. I hope you find it as useful as I have throughout the years.

23 concerned
.

 

[23 concerned]

On the Bio screening Industry News page, the first reference, you will go directily to the second Bio Screening Industry News page, with cottonseed drug information. There should be a link to go to 'home' and back to the first page of this article. There are many links on the 'home' page that you will find interesting.
It's been several years since I posted on a forum so forgive my mistakes in posting.
23 concerned
.

 

[23 concerned]

Beaucoup/General Searches/Google
Plug in the following;
http://www.bioscreening.net/glossary/gossypol/
http://www.Bioscreening.net/glossary/gossypol/cottonseed-drug

Both links to make it easier.
Will post tomorrow.
Jim, let me know if there are any particular statements that you want links to.

23 concerned
.

 

[23 concerned]

Jim I think you will find this link interesting; it is about the ‘Terminator’ seed and Monsanto Chemical who now owns Delta & Pine Land, which is the largest cotton/cottonseed/cottonseed oil producing company in the WORLD!

This is ‘big time’ and helps to explain why we are seeing so much research into the cotton plant, and also helps to explain why more food and cosmetic products are showing up in stores that contain cottonseed oil. Please remember this is a concern to me, and it is a concern to 20% of the population because this is the number my allergist gave me when I asked him how many other people are allergic to cottonseed oil. I knew others had cystic acne but I didn't know, until I had that extensive skin allergy test, that it was cottonseed oil in my diet that was causing the acne.

There is even a 'push' on today to put cottonseed flour into our human food supply. This is bad news not just for people like myself who are severely allergic to cottonseed/cottonseed oil, this is bad news for all people who eat!

Jim, I haven't forgotten that you enjoy your oysters in cottonseed oil. That seems to be a contradiction to me to put oysters, an aphrodisiac, into cottonseed oil. Where were the oysters packed? Some countries use cruder, darker colored oil than other countries. The darker oil contains more gossypol, and from the scientific literature I have posted you are now aware that gossypol renders some men sterile, and also affects their hearts.

It took Monsanto ten years to accomplish the acquisition of Delta & Pine Land.(D&PL). D&PL already had the patent for the ‘Terminator’ seed, which is more subject matter that all humankind should read and understand. There are many web sites available to read on this subject. Google Monsanto Delta & Pine Land Terminator to bring up many web sites.

http://www.banterminator.org/The-Issues/Introduction
Direct quote follows;
“
Why is Terminator a problem? The top 10 largest seed companies control half the world’s commercial seed market. If Terminator is commercialized, corporations will likely incorporate sterility genes into all their seeds. That’s because genetic seed sterilization would secure a much stronger monopoly than patents — instead of suing farmers for saving seed, companies are trying to make it biologically impossible for farmers to re-use harvested seed.
“
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GE-agriculture.php

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/MDSGBTC.php

Following are quotes from above document, the post harvest Bt is what is commonly called foodstuff when the reference is to animals grazing on the leftovers from the harvesting of the cotton plant:

“At least 1 820 sheep were reported dead after grazing on post-harvest Bt cotton crops; the symptoms and post-mortem findings strongly suggest they died from severe toxicity. This was uncovered in a preliminary investigation conducted by civil society organisations in just four villages in the Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh in India. The actual problem is likely to be much greater. “

“It cannot be mere coincidence that similar Bt toxins from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis incorporated in the genetically modified crops are involved in all these cases; but the regulators have done nothing. Things are so bad that the European Commission levelled an accusation of bias towards the biotech industry against its own food safety regulatory body (“European Food Safety Authority criticised of GMO bias”, this series). “

Jim, in India, where there is a heavy cotton growing industry, the Terminator seed,, which is a GMO seed, has been ‘in test’ and because a bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis is incorporated within the Terminator seed to prevent the cotton plant from producing seeds of it’s own, the animals that have been grazing on the cotton foodstuffs are dying. This is WHY GMO crops are a problem today. So now we have more than poisoning from gossypol to worry about in regards to cottonseed oil. The oil from GMO cottonseeds does contain the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis. It kills animals, which are mammals, and we are mammals. What do you think this bacterium does to human beings?
Most Americans don’t have a clue that this is going on. Please take the time to check out the links on the home page, and please pass the information on to people you know.

My suggestion is to make ‘hard copies’ of all information you wish to retain because documents on the web sometimes disappear. I put interesting articles into word, and store for further reference.

23 concerned’
..

 

[chemisttree]

Once cottonseed oil is refined (RBD) there is virtually no detectible limit of gossypol. That's less than 1 ppb. I don't know anyone that uses unrefined oils in food meant for human consumption.

You state

..The oil from GMO cottonseeds does contain the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis...

Are you referring to oil intended to be used for human consumption? If so, you should provide the reference that shows it is present in oil intended for human consumption (not animal feed).

 

[turbo]

Once cottonseed oil is refined (RBD) there is virtually no detectible limit of gossypol. That's less than 1 ppb. I don't know anyone that uses unrefined oils in food meant for human consumption.

Bear in mind, though, that lots of the canned seafoods entering our food-supply come from Southeast Asia. It may not be possible to monitor those canneries, nor the purity of their refined oils.

 

[chemisttree]

I know. It isn't possible to monitor everything all the time. Peanut butter has aflatoxin as does milk and all cereals. Cat food from China might have melamine. Smoked oysters from Southeast Asia might have mercury and bad oil not to mention all the known carcinogens present in smoke. Virtually all seafood has some level of mercury. Mexican pottery might have radioactive cobalt...

It goes on and on.

I'm not diminishing the possibility that bad things can happen but those types of contamination are a far cry from this statement...

The oil from GMO cottonseeds does contain the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis. It kills animals, which are mammals, and we are mammals. What do you think this bacterium does to human beings?

...which implies that since some animals that ate GMO cottonseed meal or gin trash died, we are all at risk of death from... BT?
Is there any data that shows that BT is toxic to humans? There is http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/BTgen.pdf" (even though we're 'animals').

 

[JorgeLobo]

Bacillus thuringienis doesn't "kill animals". The genus Bacillus includes very few frank pathogens for animals/mammals (anthracis being the most familiar) and B. thuringiensis "kills" insects in larval stage by producing a protein that is toxic when ingested. You can buy the bacterium in quantiyt at garden stores to treat for grubs etc - look for "milky spore" - it's an EPA registered pesticide.

23 concerned sounds like the typical sophomoric true believer. Tho' claiming to have plenty of scientific references, none are offered - just sensationalist "science news" type reports and a search engine that allows folks to find the more obscure and sensational BS that supports their biases. The technical search engines are few - PubMed, Scopus, even Google scholar.

23 concerned - please provide some relevant information form a peered reviewed journal so we can make up our own minds.

 

[23 concerned]

Thank you all for your critique, and the valuable reference to ‘Google Scholar.’

I found that with ‘Google beta Scholar’ I could go directly to web pages containing similar materials to what I have already posted.
Yes, I did state in my post that Bt toxin was responsible for the death of the sheep. I got this information directly from the web page I posted that was authored by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho..

The quote from the web page I already posted is,
“The team concludes that “the preliminary information gathered from meeting shepherds across 3 mandals, strongly suggests that the sheep mortality was due to a toxin, and most likely Bt toxin from the foliage.”’

The following post concerns material that came from web pages on ‘Google Beta Scholar' so perhaps it will be more acceptable and considered to be more ‘scholarly’. This posting explains how Bt was altered from it’s normal form into a different gene sequence, and implanted into the seeds of food crops including the cotton crop that was talked about in India in the last post on GMO altered crops.

The altered gene sequence of Bt is part of the ‘Terminator’ sequence that prevents the seeds that come from food crops from germinating more than just one time.. What the ‘Terminator’ gene in food crop seeds does in third world countries, and some day in all countries in the World, is it forces the farmers to buy all of their seeds from Monsanto instead of reseeding their crops with seeds taken from their previously grown crops. This was WHY I explained in my first post about how Monsanto worked 10+ years to acquire Pine Land. Please refer back to my first post if you don’t understand what I am talking about here in reference to Pine Land.
23 concerned

Link obtained from Google beta Scholar

http://66.102.1.104/scholar?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=cache:J6DyUQfMzpQJ:www.i-sis.org.uk/pdf/GM_Food_Nightmare_Unfolding.pdf+sheep+grazing+bt+cotton+dr.+mae-wan+ho

Following are direct quotes from the article.

“2. Genetic modification and/or the artificial transgenic DNA to blame?
Many varieties of GM crops with different transgenes, fed/exposed to rats, mice, cows, sheep, chickens, or human beings, resulted in illnesses and deaths. The obvious suspect is the GM process and/or the artificial transgenic DNA used. “
It is important to note that transgenic DNAs are constructs entirely new to evolution. The synthetic genes are considerably altered from their natural counterparts, combining copies of sequences from many different sources. “
My comment:
In this source the ‘synthetic’ GMO gene, is a combined result that comes from several different gene sequences, from several different sources, with the resulting problem being these ‘new’ sequences are not compatible with each other with the end result being that the mammals that ingest the food/foodstuffs resulting from the plants grown in this manner cause illness and death to both the animals and the humans. In India the sheep died and some humans also perished from ingesting product that came from the ‘Terminator’ seed crop. Of concern is that cottonseed oil is/will be pressed from the ‘sterile’ ‘Terminator’ cottonseeds that result from the ‘Terminator’ crops.

Following is another quote from Dr. Mae-Wan Ho’s article, from Google Beta Scholar, on the danger of GMO tampering of food crops, which I know you will all understand because you are all ‘Scholarly’ persons. .

The quote:
“The introduced DNA contained the modified cry3Bb1 gene from B. thuringiensis subsp. kumamotoensis under the control of the 4-AS1 promoter (CaMV 35S promoter with 4 repeats of an activating sequence), plus the 5’ untranslated leader sequence of the wheat chlorophyll
a/b binding protein (wt CAB leader) and the rice actin intron. The transcription termination sequence was provided from the 3’ untranslated region of the wheat 17.3 kD heat shock protein (tahsp17). The modified cry3Bb1 gene encodes a protein of 653 amino acids whose
amino acid sequence differs from that of the wild-type protein by the addition of an alanine residue at position 2 and by seven amino acid changes.” The coding sequence for cry3Bb1 was also modified with numerous codon adjustments to compensate for codon bias in plants
as opposed to bacteria.
There are 9 bits of DNA from different sources including the coding sequence, which has been substantially altered from the natural gene. The many homologies to different genomes including those of bacteria and viruses, the presence of recombination (fragmentation) hotspots such as the CaMV 35S promoter, and the general structural
instability of transgenic DNA, are all factors that would greatly enhance horizontal gene transfer and recombination, the main route to creating new pathogens.
We have spelt out the potential dangers of the GM process in numerous publications “

My comment:
The bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis, Bt, is the same bacterium incorporated into the DNA for the Terminator formula for food crop seed BUT there is a difference in that this Bt has been ‘altered’ to ‘go off’ and prevent seeds that come from the first planting of the crop from producing seed that will germinate. The food crops are rendered ‘sterile’ from this form of Bt. This is the same altered bacterium tested in India that was spoken about, in the ‘unScholarly post’ I placed on the board the other day. That post was authored by the same Dr. Mae-Wan Ho who authored this post that I pulled from Google beta Scholar today. The ‘form’ of the Bacillus thuringiensis you purchase at the store is NOT the exact same form of Bt as the GMO form that is incorporated within the ‘Terminator’ food crop seeds.

To read more of this web article from Google beta Scholar please go to the web page with the ‘link’ I have provided you with in this, I hope, ‘Scholarly’ post. When I have more time I will post more Scholarly posts on this subject.
Thanks again for the lead to Google beta Scholar. I feel much more 'Scholarly now', and will feel this way for eons to come.

23 concerned

 

[JorgeLobo]

I'm not sure if you are ignorant or dishonest. There was NO data - this was merely his opinion.

And "your comment"?? You are hardly an authority. Give us Ronald McDonald's comment - same credibility. So what if it's different - all strains are different whether engineered or natural. No data has been offered that it "kills animals - YOUR claim.

 

[Moonbear]

23 Concerned, none of what you have cited are actual scientific articles, and really don't at all address the original question. I would love to see any actual scientific, peer-reviewed journal articles on the issue...for or against...since as you can see from my early comments in the thread, it's not something readily availlable. But, I'm afraid your sources are not meeting that criterion either.

 

[23 concerned]

Following is an article from the Journal of Animal Science that was cited in PubMed.

http://jas.fass.org/cgi/content/abstract/70/5/1628
“Journal of Animal Science, Vol 70, Issue 5 1628-1638, Copyright © 1992 by American Society of Animal Science

JOURNAL ARTICLE
“Effects of gossypol and cottonseed products on reproduction of mammals
R. D. Randel, C. C. Chase Jr and S. J. Wyse
Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Overton 75684.
Gossypol is a toxic factor indigenous to the cotton plant genus Gossypium. Concentrations of free gossypol contained in feedstuffs such as whole cottonseed and cottonseed meals vary considerably. Nonruminant animals are particularly sensitive to the toxic effects of gossypol, whereas ruminants are somewhat more resistant. Signs of gossypol toxicosis in nonruminants, preruminants, and ruminants are similar and include labored breathing, dyspnea, decreased growth rate, and anorexia but are not pathognomonic. Postmortem findings include generalized edema and congestion of lungs and liver, fluid-filled thoracic and peritoneal cavities, and degeneration of heart fibers. The antifertility effect observed in many nonruminant species is overshadowed by toxic effects, particularly in females. Gossypol seems to disrupt estrous cycles, pregnancy, and early embryo development in females of all nonruminant species studied. Probable mechanisms include an endocrine effect on the ovary as well as a cytotoxic effect on the uterus or embryo. The female ruminant seems to be relatively insensitive to the antifertility effect of gossypol; however, in vitro data indicate some inhibition of embryonic development and ovarian steroidogenesis. The antifertility effect of gossypol has been studied most in males of nonruminant species. The effects of gossypol in the male are both dose- and time-dependent. At effective doses, gossypol causes males to be infertile because of sperm immotility and depressed sperm counts. Specific mitochondrial damage in the tails of spermatozoa seems to render them immotile, and extensive damage to germinal epithelium may be responsible for depressions in spermatogenesis. In ruminant males fed diets containing gossypol, ejaculated sperm appears normal under light microscopy. The integrity of the membrane of sperm cells may be damaged. Extensive damage to the germinal epithelium has been shown in both rams and bulls fed diets containing gossypol and is of major concern. “

Abstract Cited in PubMed; full text is available.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1526930?dopt=Abstract

“1: J Anim Sci. 1992 May;70(5):1628-38.
Effects of gossypol and cottonseed products on reproduction of mammals.

Randel RD, Chase CC Jr, Wyse SJ.

Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Overton 75684.

Gossypol is a toxic factor indigenous to the cotton plant genus Gossypium. Concentrations of free gossypol contained in feedstuffs such as whole cottonseed and cottonseed meals vary considerably. Nonruminant animals are particularly sensitive to the toxic effects of gossypol, whereas ruminants are somewhat more resistant. Signs of gossypol toxicosis in nonruminants, preruminants, and ruminants are similar and include labored breathing, dyspnea, decreased growth rate, and anorexia but are not pathognomonic. Postmortem findings include generalized edema and congestion of lungs and liver, fluid-filled thoracic and peritoneal cavities, and degeneration of heart fibers. The antifertility effect observed in many nonruminant species is overshadowed by toxic effects, particularly in females. Gossypol seems to disrupt estrous cycles, pregnancy, and early embryo development in females of all nonruminant species studied. Probable mechanisms include an endocrine effect on the ovary as well as a cytotoxic effect on the uterus or embryo. The female ruminant seems to be relatively insensitive to the antifertility effect of gossypol; however, in vitro data indicate some inhibition of embryonic development and ovarian steroidogenesis. The antifertility effect of gossypol has been studied most in males of nonruminant species. The effects of gossypol in the male are both dose- and time-dependent. At effective doses, gossypol causes males to be infertile because of sperm immotility and depressed sperm counts. Specific mitochondrial damage in the tails of spermatozoa seems to render them immotile, and extensive damage to germinal epithelium may be responsible for depressions in spermatogenesis. In ruminant males fed diets containing gossypol, ejaculated sperm appears normal under light microscopy. The integrity of the membrane of sperm cells may be damaged. Extensive damage to the germinal epithelium has been shown in both rams and bulls fed diets containing gossypol and is of major concern.

Publication Types:
· Review

PMID: 1526930 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]”

My comment:
This is my favorite Einstein quote:
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."

Jim and all, is this proof enough for you that gossypol is toxic?

23 concerned
.

 

[23 concerned]

I am surprised that I found this in PubMed because allergy to cottonseed oil is ignored or it is stated by many professionals that allergy to cottonseed exists but allergy to the oil doesn’t exist because very little protein from the seed gets into the oil.

Those of us who are allergic to cottonseed oil, and have to carry epi pens to inject ourselves, just in case we should accidentally ingest cottonseed oil, know all too well that allergy to cottonseed oil is a very real threat in our everyday lives.

It caused cystic acne when I was a teen. I went through an exhausted skin allergy test because I developed allergy to mold, grasses and trees. It was this test that revealed how allergic I am to cottonseed, and this translated for me into my allergy to cottonseed oil.
I stopped eating everything that contained cottonseed oil and the cystic acne went away and didn’t return. I had a couple of incidences in my life where I accidentally ingested cottonseed oil, and I had severe reactions. Afterwards I learned that cottonseed oil was in the food. All of this is the same for many other people I have met throughout the years. Antidotal to this, my allergist told me that 20% of all people who go through the skin allergy test, which has 200 allergens in the test, and takes two hours to perform, are allergic to the cottonseed and cottonseed oil. That’s a lot of people to be allergic to this substance that is in so many food, cosmetic and salve items.
23 concerned

Click on advanced Search to reach the online page.
Click #21 Bernton results 39.
Click # 36 on page 2.

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“
1: BERNTON HS et al. On allergy to cottonseed oil...[PMID: 18132528] Related Articles, Links
PMID - 18132528
OWN - NLM
STAT - MEDLINE
DA - 19491201
DCOM - 20071227
LR - 20080530
IS - 0002-9955 (Print)
VI - 140
IP - 10
DP - 1949 Jul 9
TI - On allergy to cottonseed oil.
PG - 869-71
FAU - BERNTON, H S
AU - BERNTON HS
FAU - COULSON, E J
AU - COULSON EJ
FAU - STEVENS, H
AU - STEVENS H
LA - Eng
PT - Journal Article
PL - Not Available
TA - J Am Med Assoc
JT - Journal of the American Medical Association
JID - 7507176
RN - 0 (Cottonseed Oil)
SB - OM
MH - *Anaphylaxis
MH - *Cottonseed Oil
MH - *Hypersensitivity
OID - CLML: 4917:568p
OTO - NLM
OT - *ANAPHYLAXIS AND ALLERGY
OT - *COTTONSEED
EDAT - 1949/07/09 00:00
MHDA - 2008/05/31 09:00
CRDT - 1949/07/09 00:00
PST - Ppublish
SO - J Am Med Assoc. 1949 Jul 9;140(10):869-71.
‘

 

[jim mcnamara]

We are NOT picking on you - your first long post made dozens of statements and presented them as facts. Which is okay if they are corrborated by research. They were not.

Notice that you changed the use of the word poison to toxic after you looked at a few papers. Good. Did you find an LD50 for gossypol? Go find one.

Do you know what LD50 means?: the dose of a substance (usually in mg) per unit of body mass (usually Kg) that results in 50% mortality of a population of test subjects. There are LD50 results for compounds you might not think of as toxic example: selenium in various forms. Selenium is an element that is required in human nutrition -- 70 micrograms/day

LD50 in rabbits (they normally don't try to find ld50 using human subjects for obvious reasons) for sodium selenite is 2.56mg/Kg. So a teaspoon of sodium selenite- say 15000 mg would kill off 50% of a really large family of adult humans.

ld50:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1015963
RDI for Se:
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/selenium.asp

So the bottom line on selenium toxicity is: Simply because a compound or element is toxic in one form or another at some dose does not preclude it being required in the human diet, i.e. you should consume some bio-available selenium every day.

There is a ton of misinformation floating around out there about what is and is not toxic. Try a google search on aspartame. And don't believe about 98% of the sites returned.

Now you see why it is reasonable to put you on the spot regarding claims of toxicity.

Go find an LD50, and then see what limits for gossypol are allowed in food. You may want to check to see if gossypol effects are cumulative, in other words, do organisms metabolize away small amounts every day or does it accumulate.

Don't take this as me saying 'gossypol is good for you' it simply means you have to evaluate this kind stuff in context. And review the literature. So the questions are:

Are we forced to consume gossypol or can we personally avoid it?

Are the effects horrific?

Is there research on: is gossypol toxic at the doses we are routinely exposed to?

Answering this requires research. Not unsupported claims.

Now I have to go out in the backyard. The aliens are after my chickens again... :)