Bongkrek acid
Bongkrek acid is a respiratory toxin produced in fermented coconut contaminated by the bacterium Burkholderia gladioli pathovar cocovenenans. it has been implicated in deaths resulting from eating coconut-based product known as tempe bongkrèk, which is banned in Indonesia. It was also responsible for 75 deaths and over 200 hospitalizations due to contaminated beer in a Mozambique funeral.
It is highly toxic because the compound inhibits the ADP/ATP translocase, 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 ADP/ATP translocase was solved in 2019, demonstrating that it binds to the substrate binding site, preventing ATP in the mitochondrial matrix from binding.
