Clinical complaints among males in beniseed consuming areas of Cross River and Benue states of Nigeria

A survey on clinical complaints arising from beniseed consumption by 860 males randomly selected from residents and indigenes of Obudu, Ogoja in Cross River State and Vandekya, in Benue State, all in Nigeria, was conducted. Traditionally, there had been an age long complaint by men from these areas of painful urination upon consumption of beniseed soup. The results obtained in the survey showed that 804 (93.49%) respondents aged 18 years and above, had consumed beniseed in its various processed forms. Of this number, 492 (61.19%) claimed to have experienced some discomfort ranging from painful urination (343, 84.0%), abdominal upset (26, 6.4%), heartburn (20, 4.9%), constipation (15, 3.7%) and flatulence (4, 0.98%). Also, 408 (82.9%) consumed beniseed as soup, 17 (3.5%) raw, 25 (5.1%) roasted while 42 (8.5%) gave no response to the questionaire. From the survey, 38.7% of respondents who consumed beniseed soup, 41.2% raw beniseed and 52.0% roasted beniseed experienced the discomfort shortly after consumption while 47.8% of those who consumed beniseed soup, 41.2% raw beniseed and 28.0% roasted beniseed had any of these experiences 1-3 days after consumption and the experiences lasted in both cases for 2-7 days. These experiences, particularly on consumption of beniseed soup, was attributed to when the soup was not “properly cooked”.KEY WORDS: Clinical Complaints, Beniseed, Males, Nigeri