Irene of girl group Red Velvet. [Herald Pop (now Herald Muse)]
Irene of girl group Red Velvet. [Herald Pop (now Herald Muse)]

Thai fans flooded the comments with warnings after Red Velvet's Irene drank alcohol alongside durian on a YouTube broadcast.

On Friday, Irene appeared on the YouTube channel "Charin Geon Jwipuldo Eopjiman" and was seen getting tipsy as she shared drinks with host Lee Young-ji. The production team had prepared durian as a snack for Irene, who is known as a durian enthusiast.

As the alcohol took effect, Irene said, "I don't want to break the record for the longest filming session," before trailing off with, "What was I talking about?"

As filming wrapped up, she said, "We haven't talked about life at all. Wait, is it really ending like this?" When she looked up at a producer adjusting her microphone and acted cute, the producer replied, "Please don't look at me like that."

Domestic fans left comments such as "I'd actually go watch this if they screened it on IMAX" and "I didn't know she was this charming."

The reaction from international fans was different.

One fan wrote, "Never eat durian and alcohol together. You could die. Durian contains substances that interfere with alcohol metabolism. It's very dangerous."

Another Thai fan warned, "It is widely known in Thailand that you should not eat durian and alcohol together. Both durian and alcohol generate heat in the body, so consuming them together is very dangerous — there have actually been fatal cases."

According to research published in the journal Food Chemistry in 2009 by a horticulture research team at the University of Tsukuba in Japan, durian extract inhibits the activity of aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), a liver enzyme that breaks down acetaldehyde, a toxic byproduct produced when alcohol is consumed.

The same research team published a follow-up paper in 2011 reporting results from an experiment in which rats were given durian and ethanol together. Rats that ate durian showed delayed clearance of acetaldehyde from the blood and also experienced a drop in body temperature.

However, the research team noted that the scientific basis for a fatal outcome from combining durian and alcohol has not been established.


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