Toxalbumin

[citation needed] Toxalbumins were first described in about 1890 by Ludwig Brieger (1849–1919) and Sigmund Fraenkel (1868–1939), associates of the organic chemist Eugen Baumann.

[2] Toxalbumins notably are present in the plant families Leguminosae and Euphorbiaceae, occurring for instance in Robinia pseudoacacia, Abrus precatorius, Jatropha curcas, Croton gratissimus and Ricinus communis.

Ripe fruits having a fleshy pulp are usually tasty and edible and lacking toxalbumins, encourage ingestion and the consequent distribution of seeds that have a coat sufficiently durable to survive a passage through the digestive system of a herbivore or fructivore.

As with most proteins it breaks down after heat treatment, such as cooking or steaming, and after the oil is extracted, the resulting pomace is often used as animal feed.

[7] The toxins present in poisonous mushrooms such as Amanita phalloides are quite different from toxalbumins and are mostly secondary metabolites or amatoxins which do not readily break down under applied heat.