I've known about this issue for several years now. Given that I have a pretty significant garden investment in annonas (a dozen cherimoya trees, a dozen pawpaw trees, and a few exotic annonas from Brazil), and given that cherimoyas are so incredibly delicious, before ripping out my trees, I decided to wait it out that some things get cleared up. Here's what's not very consistent: Soursop juice and pulp is consumed in great quantities throughout the tropics, and the only population that has shown the parkinson's like symptoms is the one in Guadeloupe. Go to any chinese, vietnamese, or other Asian market, and you will not only find tonns of fresh cherimoyas, but also lots of processed soursop products. Not to mention the Andes, where cherimoyas are consumed in great quantities and processed into ice cream and other items. None of these populations have shown any issues around annona consumption. There are a number of theories around: 1) It turns out that annonacin becomes non-toxic in the presence of sugar. 2) The pulp used in the studies may contain the skin as well as the fruit pulp. It's well known that all the plant parts of annona trees are highly toxic except for the fruit. 3) The Guadelupe population uses other parts of the annona tree as tea and other medicinal purposes. Seems that is where the trouble is. So until someone shows that eating JUST the pulp of annonas and not any other plant parts also causes illness, I will not be so quick as to dump all my annona trees. However, I will eat the fruit in moderation.

Sorry for my error about classification, which Roseleaf corrected. I now realize I was looking at an Australian MSDS, and their national agency does not classify tebuconazole as a possible carcinogen. The EPA is very cautious, which is probably a good thing. One synthetic rose fungicide in common use that the EPA does not classify as a probable or possible carcinogen is the Ortho fungicide with triforine. Those who are concerned could use this or an organic fungicide like sulfur, which is very safe. About the neurotoxicity of tebuconazole, there was a finding that it caused death of brain cells in rat pups, but this finding has been retracted by the research group as an error. The group also found that tebuconazole produced learning impairment after the pregnant rat was fed 60 mg/kg per day during pregnancy and then the pups fed the same until adulthood. Lower doses did not affect the rats' learning behavior.

Thanks for the kind words, my online gardening friends. We too have stayed away from processed foods and fast foods as much as possible, eating organic beef and chicken and lots of organic veggies from the garden. But toxins can overwhelm a body that would otherwise stay healthy. And although our gasoline no longer has lead in it, someone who commutes 3 hrs a day as my DH does gets exposed to gasoline exhaust before he ever gets to work. Ceresone, so sorry to hear of your husband. Our prayers for you and him.

My university is planting several pawpaw trees on campus next week, so i've been doing some research on them. I've never eaten one, but i've been reading that they contain a neurotoxin that while is potentially an amazing anti-cancer treatment.. some studies also show that it can cause Parkinson's disease. Though I'm hoping you'd have to eat alot of them to cause that. The offending chemical is actually a natural pesticide, an alkaloid.. so I'm wondering if maybe you can cook the chemical out of it somehow. Pharmaceutical companies harvest it from the bark of the tree.. but it seems it is contained everywhere in the plant. Can anyone comment on this? Here is a link that might be useful: WebMD - study of parkinsons and pesticides