Cyanide: Apples, Apricots, Cherries, Peaches

Welsh wisdom reworked as “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” dates back to the 1860s. One of the most popular poisons in history, cyanide, dates back far further. Surprisingly, the two are not unconnected. Almost a century earlier, in 1782 Carl Wilhelm Scheele extracted cyanogenic glycoside amygdalin from fruit pits dissolved them in water. Amygdalin exists in many plants, particularly their seeds. It is present in those of apples, pears, cherries, peaches, plums, apricots and bitter almonds. Indeed peach ‘pits’ or ‘stones’, as the seeds of fruits are often called, contain enough hydrocyanic acid to once have been used as a commercial source of cyanide.  Despite occasional deaths being reported from accidental consumption of the kernels, it is not recommended for those wishing to exit this mortal coil. Neither is the medical profession overly enthusiastic on their promotion as a cancer cure. Nor is it particularly effective. Indeed the side effects might make survivors select other options. François Bodin and C. F. Cheinisse, authors of Les Poisons (1972), recount symptoms of cyanide poisoning:

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