Nardoo: thiaminase and the Aboriginal processing that makes it edible
Nardoo: tiaminasa y el procesado aborigen que lo hace comestible
- Date
- 1994 (explotado desde before 1860) · confidence medium
- Place
- Cooper Creek, Innamincka, South Australia, Australia
- Credited to
- Yandruwandha and other Aboriginal peoples; study by J. W. Earl and B. V. McCleary (1994)
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Aboriginal people cooked, ground and washed the spores of the aquatic fern nardoo (Marsilea drummondii) to make a flour. The Burke and Wills expedition, which ate it without that preparation, fell ill with beriberi; in 1994 the plant was shown to contain thiaminase, an enzyme that destroys vitamin B1.
The cause of Burke and Wills's illness is debated: besides thiaminase, hunger, exhaustion and other deficiencies played a part; the 1994 study offered a plausible biochemical explanation, not a conclusive one.
What it led to
- explanation of the deaths of the Burke and Wills expedition
- an example of Aboriginal technical knowledge of food detoxification
- interest in aquatic ferns as a starch source in arid areas