Kumasi: National Security operatives in Kumasi have kicked off a targeted crackdown to clear the streets of a dangerous homemade drink that's been quietly circulating for years.
According to Ghana Web, Madara Sukudai is popularly sold as a 'heart cleanser' that many young people swear by for giving their chest a fresh, burning 'clean' feeling. What started as whispers and street sales, often in Zongos and around auto mechanic shops, peddled by some Nigerien traders and a few locals, has now been exposed as seriously toxic.
Preliminary lab tests at KNUST's Department of Pharmacology shattered the myth: the concoction isn't some harmless herbal brew. It contains acetone (the stuff in nail polish remover and paint thinner), zinc chloride (a corrosive chemical used in batteries and wood treatment), and ethanol as a base. In acute toxicity tests, lab rats given low, medium, or high doses all died within 24 hours.
The mixture was so aggressive that it even melted plastic takeaway bowls and universal bottles. Professor Cynthia Amaning Danquah, Head of the Department of Pharmacology at KNUST, expressed concern, explaining that the product's ingredients are corrosive and can cause severe gastrointestinal irritation. "It is corrosive, and it will cause GI (gastrointestinal) irritation and can result in serious damage to the liver and the kidneys," she said.
Even sellers reportedly refuse to drink it themselves when challenged. Ashanti Regional Deputy Security Coordinator Alhaji Njeh Abdallah Umar, who led the operation that arrested a key trader in Aboabo after weeks of surveillance, called it a clear national security and public health threat.
A kidney specialist at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Professor Elliot Koranteng Tannor, has seen too many puzzling cases of unexplained kidney damage and is deeply worried. He suspects the burning sensation people feel in their chest, what they call 'cleansing,' is actually the corrosives eating away at their insides. "If it is absorbed into their body, then there's a tendency that it can affect their liver and their kidney," he said.
KNUST is pushing ahead with longer-term chronic toxicity studies examining organs, liver enzymes, blood, and cells under microscopes, but Professor Danquah isn't waiting for final results to sound the alarm. "We'll just advise that people stay away from it," she stated. National Security is now teaming up across regions to stamp out Sukudai nationwide.