Bongkrek acid (also known as bongkrekic acid) is a

respiratory The respiratory system (also respiratory apparatus, ventilatory system) is a biological system consisting of specific organs and structures used for gas exchange in animals and plants. The anatomy and physiology that make this happen varies grea ...

toxin A toxin is a naturally occurring organic poison produced by metabolic activities of living cells or organisms. Toxins occur especially as a protein or conjugated protein. The term toxin was first used by organic chemist Ludwig Brieger (1849– ...

produced in

fermented Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food ...

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family ( Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the ...

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

contaminated by the

bacterium Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among ...

''Burkholderia gladioli'' pathovar ''cocovenenans''. It is highly toxic because the compound inhibits the

ADP/ATP translocase Adenine nucleotide translocator (ANT), also known as the ADP/ATP translocase (ANT), ADP/ATP carrier protein (AAC) or mitochondrial ADP/ATP carrier, exchanges free ATP with free ADP across the inner mitochondrial membrane. ANT is the most abund ...

, also called the mitochondrial ADP/ATP carrier, preventing ATP from leaving the mitochondria to provide metabolic energy to the rest of the cell. The structure of bongkrekic acid bound to

was solved in 2019, demonstrating that it binds to the substrate binding site, preventing ATP in the mitochondrial matrix from binding. It has been implicated in deaths resulting from eating the coconut-based product known as tempe bongkrèk, which is banned in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. It was also responsible for 75 deaths and over 200 hospitalizations due to contaminated beer in a Mozambique funeral. In October 2020, nine members of a family in China died after eating corn noodles contaminated with the acid.{{cite news , last1=Majumder , first1=Bhaswati Guha , title=Deadly Breakfast: 9 Family Members Die After Eating Homemade Noodles in China , url=https://www.ibtimes.sg/deadly-breakfast-9-family-members-die-after-eating-homemade-noodles-china-52670 , access-date=24 October 2020 , work=www.ibtimes.sg , date=20 October 2020 , language=en , archive-date=24 October 2020 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024183248/https://www.ibtimes.sg/deadly-breakfast-9-family-members-die-after-eating-homemade-noodles-china-52670 , url-status=live

References

Toxicology Carboxylic acids Alkene derivatives Ethers ADP/ATP translocase inhibitors Bacterial toxins