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Poisoning by cucumbers: fresh, pickled, pickled
Medical expert of the article
Last reviewed: 12.07.2025
Among the possible toxic effects of food origin, experts note poisoning from cucumbers - fresh, lightly salted, salted, canned.
Causes cucumber poisoning
The main causes of poisoning from fresh cucumbers are exceeding the maximum permissible level (350-400 mg/kg) of nitrogen salts, which can accumulate in all parts of the plant, including the fruits. This applies to both greenhouse cucumbers and ground cucumbers. Poisoning with nitrates and nitrites is noted when too much nitrogen-containing mineral fertilizer is added to the soil. [ 1 ]
Nitrogen is needed to produce chlorophyll (the green pigment in leaves), which is responsible for converting sunlight into useful energy for plants. The highest levels of nitrates accumulate in cucumbers when ammonium nitrate or sodium nitrate are used; slightly less when plants are fertilized with urea (carbamide) or ammonium sulfate solution. [ 2 ]
In addition, fresh cucumbers can accumulate toxic substances from pesticides (used to destroy pests of vegetable crops) and lead (if the land plots where cucumbers are grown are located near highways).
Lightly salted (pickled) and salted cucumbers are prepared using fermentation: sodium chloride (table salt) contained in the brine leaches sugars from cucumbers, the pH decreases, and the production of lactic acid begins by heterofermentative lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc, Pediococcus, Lactococcus lactis). This process explains the characteristic taste and fairly long shelf life of the product.
If salting occurs without sealing, the combination of salt and lactic acid preserves the product, preventing the growth of rotting microbes and mold fungi.
If the required level of salt and acid and the cooking rules are observed, lightly salted and pickled cucumbers are unlikely to spoil, and food poisoning from pickles, as well as poisoning from lightly salted cucumbers, is observed quite rarely.
Although it is not excluded that they may spoil due to the growth of yeast and mold fungi, as a result of an excessive amount of mucus-forming Leuconostoc bacteria (which get onto cucumbers from the soil), as well as Acetobacteraceae bacteria, which inhibit lactic acid bacteria and lead to acetic acid fermentation (souring). [ 3 ], [ 4 ]
Pickled cucumbers are different from fermented cucumbers: they are pickled using acetic acid and must be sterilized. When not preserved properly, they can grow Clostridium botulinum, a microorganism that causes a type of deadly bacterial food poisoning called botulism. [ 5 ], [ 6 ]
Risk factors
The following risk factors for cucumber poisoning should be considered:
- consumption of greenhouse products during the off-season;
- excessive use of nitrogen mineral fertilizers (especially when growing vegetables in greenhouses);
- insufficient primary processing of vegetables before pickling or preserving;
- violation of technologies, including acid levels, temperature conditions (below +120°C) and pressure during sterilization.
Pathogenesis
In case of poisoning with nitrates contained in fresh or lightly salted (pickled) cucumbers, the pathogenesis of toxic effects is associated with the fact that already in the oral cavity - with the help of reductase enzymes of saliva - they are reduced to nitrites; then in the gastrointestinal tract (under the influence of intestinal microbiota) metabolism continues with the formation of nitric oxide (NO). Nitrites quickly enter the blood, and excess NO leads to nitrosylation - covalent inclusion of its nitrosyl fragment in the molecules of oxyhemoglobin of red blood cells (oxygen-carrying hemoglobin). The iron of oxyhemoglobin is oxidized, and as a result it turns into methemoglobin, which cannot bind and transport oxygen, and under conditions of methemoglobinemia the body does not receive a sufficient amount of oxygen. [ 7 ], [ 8 ], [ 9 ]
The mechanism of poisoning by canned cucumbers (including pickled ones) is the effect on the body of botulinum toxin - a botulinum neurotoxin produced by anaerobic bacteria Clostridium botulinum, which acts on the peripheral and central nervous system, which is manifested in blocking the transmission of nerve impulses to the muscles. [ 10 ], [ 11 ], [ 12 ]
Symptoms cucumber poisoning
In acute nitrate poisoning, the first signs appear after about four to six hours in the form of general weakness, dizziness, nausea, and repeated vomiting.
In full, the symptoms of hypoxia in such poisoning with fresh or salted cucumbers of moderate or severe degree are manifested by shortness of breath, increased heart rate, decreased blood pressure, pallor and bluish skin (cyanosis), confusion (with its possible loss), convulsions, and abnormal heart rhythms.
When eating cucumbers with high lead content (which accumulates most in the peel and seeds), nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain and constipation occur.
Poisoning from moldy pickles can manifest itself with characteristic symptoms of food poisoning.
In addition to gastrointestinal symptoms, botulinum toxin poisoning is characterized by ophthalmologic symptoms (diplopia, blurred vision) and progressive muscle weakness. For more details, see Botulism – Symptoms. [ 13 ]
Complications and consequences
The consequences of poisoning with cucumbers containing nitrates are suffocation. Complications of botulism are manifested by shortness of breath, constant weakness, and rapid fatigue.
In severe cases and insufficient treatment (untimely administration of antibotulinum serum), botulism can be fatal.
Diagnostics cucumber poisoning
All details in the publications:
Tests may include: a complete blood count, a bacteriological analysis (culture) of blood serum for intestinal infections, a blood test for antibodies to pathogens causing intestinal infections, and a coprogram.
Differential diagnosis
In case of any poisoning, differential diagnosis is carried out with acute intestinal infections: caused by bacteria of the Shigella dysenteriae family: dysentery; salmonellosis (caused by Salmonella enterica bacteria) [ 14 ], [ 15 ] or yersiniosis (which is a consequence of infection of the gastrointestinal tract with Yersinia enterocolitica bacteria) [ 16 ], [ 17 ], etc.
It is also important to differentiate between digestive upset (in the form of abdominal discomfort, flatulence and diarrhea), which may be one of the possible side effects of eating too many pickles (lightly salted, salted or marinated cucumbers).
Additionally, some people with hypertension experience elevated blood pressure after eating high-salt foods because excess fluid retention can increase blood plasma volume.
Who to contact?
Treatment cucumber poisoning
For more information on how to provide first aid for cucumber poisoning, read the article – Help with food poisoning
In case of poisoning, how to properly wash the stomach with water, sodium bicarbonate solution, etc., see – Gastric lavage
For the purpose of detoxification, sorbents are used without fail: activated carbon or Polysorb. For more information, see – Tablets for poisoning [ 18 ]
It is also necessary to combat fluid loss - dehydration and restore the balance of electrolytes, for which solutions of Regidron, Oralit, Solana, still mineral water, a solution of salt with sugar (half a tablespoon of salt and a tablespoon of sugar per liter of boiled water) are used orally.
In severe cases, intensive care units resort to intravenous administration of special rehydration solutions. In addition, symptomatic intensive therapy for poisoning uses drugs from various pharmacological groups. Detailed information in the articles:
Prevention
To avoid poisoning from fresh cucumbers, you should avoid eating "winter" cucumbers grown in greenhouses. Or check the level of nitrates in them.
Seasonal cucumbers are recommended to be soaked in cold water with the addition of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. Peeling the cucumbers is considered a useful precaution.
All fruits intended for pickling, fermenting or preserving should be thoroughly washed and soaked in cold water.
If the brine (marinade) in a jar of canned salted or pickled cucumbers has become cloudy, the color of the cucumbers themselves has changed, or they have become soft, such a product cannot be consumed. Bloating of the lid indicates that canned (rolled) cucumbers have gone bad.
Forecast
In case of mild poisoning, as well as with proper treatment of moderate cucumber poisoning, the prognosis is favorable. But in case of botulism, the prognosis may be unfavorable.