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Silverngold

Posted by goldielocks @ 0:22 on October 27, 2014  

K when you mentioned apricot pits plus bitter ” as bitter or milky usually warns poison and in our genes not to eat it.  I figured out what your talking about. Cyanide. Apricot pits contain cyanide and tastes bitter. Before you go self medicate..

I looked this up to saving typing this out.

Apples are one such fruit: their pips (seeds) contain amygdalin, a cyanide and sugar compound that degrades into hydrogen cyanide (HCN) when metabolized. Cyanide itself is a poison that kills by denying blood the ability to carry oxygen and thereby causes its victims to die of asphyxiation. At least within the realm of murder mysteries, cyanide is the darling of poisoners because it acts quickly and irrevocably — once a fatal dose has been ingested, there is no effective antidote, and death takes place within minutes. It is sometimes described as having a bitter almond smell, but it does not always give off an odor, nor can everyone detect the scent. Cyanide is usually found joined with other chemicals in compounds: hydrogen cyanide, cyanogen chloride, sodium cyanide, and potassium cyanide. In the death camps of World War II, the Nazis used hydrogen cyanide (Zyklon B) for their gas chambers.
Luckily for those fond of their Granny Smiths, the body can detoxify cyanide in small doses, and the number of apple seeds it takes to pack a lethal punch is therefore huge — even the most dedicated of apple eaters is extremely unlikely to ingest enough pips to cause any harm. Yet those who have heard apple seeds house a poison (usually remembered as arsenic, a quite different though equally deadly compound) cling to the frightening belief that swallowing a small number of pips spells instant death. We’ve had folks fret to us that ingesting as few as three apple seeds would do someone in, a “fact” which, if true, would mean each and every one of us was flirting with the grim reaper every time we made a grab for a delicious.
Cherry, peach, and apricot pits also contain amygdalin; the latter two, at least, in potentially harmful amounts. Fortunately, peach and apricot pits are sufficiently large and hard that few people intentionally swallow or chew them. (The unapproved anti-cancer drug Laetrile is a semisynthetic derivative of amygdalin; a cheaper version of laetrile produced in Mexico came from crushed apricot pits.)

A far greater natural source of cyanide is the cassava root, a vegetable favored by many in Africa. (Westerners know this plant best as tapioca.) Drying, soaking, and baking cassava roots renders its cyanide precursor, linamarin, harmless, but if that process is not carried out properly the cassava can remain poisonous.

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Post by the Golden Rule. Oasis not responsible for content/accuracy of posts. DYODD.