Citric acid attack?
We’re guessing this fruit won’t keep the doctor away. A UK tourist sustained third-degree burns across his face after biting into an exotic fruit in Mexico.
“I couldn’t imagine the pain just from biting into one case,” Thomas Harold Watson, 28, told Southwest News Service of the strange fruit experience, which occurred on May 1 while he was sight-seeing in Campeche, within the Yucatan peninsula.
The Bedforshire-based construction employee had been strolling through an area market, when he got here upon a stand selling cashew apples, the fruits that encase the namesake nut.
Watson, who regularly shares photos of his experiences abroad on Instagram, had heard you possibly can eat the fruit and decided to present it a whirl.
“You may eat the cashew apple fruit, it’s meant to be a bit bitter,” the Brit described. “I’d heard about it but never tried it within the flesh, so I purchased it, went for a walk and began eating a number of different fruits.”
It was pain at first bite. “I believed I’d open it up – it felt like a passion fruit, and I bit into this sac which exploded right away,” recalled Watson.” “Immediately it felt like fire, I could feel this hearth going across my mouth.”
The following day when he awoke, his face was completely burnt and “scabby” as if doused with acid, as seen in viral photos.
“When my lips were all burnt they literally felt like they’d be dissolved, it felt like my lip had gone like baking paper for 3 or 4 days,” recalled Watson while describing his Freddy Krueger-esque affliction.
It was so bad that even his hands were discolored.
Unbeknownst to the traveler on the time, the cashew fruit accommodates cardol and anacardic acid, a caustic cocktail that could cause blisters when it comes into contact with the skin.
Watson only discovered this hazard via a subsequent Google search, during which he learned that staff who shell cashews can suffer severe burns to their hands and arms.
Despite his painful injuries, Watson shunned going to the hospital as he didn’t need to be slapped with a hefty medical bill.
Unfortunately, the recovery process has been long and agonizing. “A few days ago I used to be in a position to peel off my whole lip, it was a few inches wide,” said Watson. “They’re still quite burnt up and never great but way higher than they were.”
In light of the painful saga, the globetrotter is warning fellow tourists to do their research before biting into exotic items abroad.
“It’s all the time good to eat local foods but I assume it’s also good to have a bit of information about them,” he said.
