0 a substance found in decaying vegetable and animal matter that used to be thought to cause food poisoning:
The theory was that poorly preserved meats would be contaminated by ptomaine.
He was told that scurvy was an acidic condition of the blood caused by ptomaines in tainted meat.
Everyone in the restaurant got ptomaine from the sorbet.
Certain factors seemed to predispose people to chronic ptomaine poisoning, including darkness, intense exertion, and cold.
Ptomaine is a basic product of putrefaction.
Even minute quantities of ptomaine might be enough to cause scurvy.
When proteins are taken with sugar, they they are broken down into a variety of ptomaines and leucomaines.
During the night I had thought myself dying of ptomaine poisoning.