Stonefruit pits contain cyanide. (Including almonds.) I made apricot preserves one time and the recipe called for slivered pits to add a bit of flavor. Research it, it appears that you'd need to eat several hands full to poison yourself. And since it doesn't bioaccumulate, eating tiny bits is probably okay. (YMMV/not a doctor/don't rely on this/etc.)
stvltvs 4 hours ago [-]
"The dose makes the poison" but I'm not in a hurry to make myself a test case for no good reason. Tastier preserves might be a good enough reason.
supernewton 3 hours ago [-]
Your body actually produces a small amount of cyanide endogenously, if it makes you feel any better. It has some role in cell signalling.
carlob 4 hours ago [-]
Bitter almonds contain amygdalin which is cyanogenic. You can't make a number of preparations without them (some types of marzipan or almond pastries and Disaronno come to mind).
nartho 4 hours ago [-]
This is not the case, however, for bitter almonds.
riffraff 3 hours ago [-]
even with bitter almonds a grown up needs to eat quite a bit, many old recipes ask for a few bitter almonds in a preparation.
A child could die with 5-6 whole bitter almonds, but they are really, really bitter so it's not that easy to accidentally do that.
AStonesThrow 2 hours ago [-]
My grandmother introduced us to a world of old-school delicacies, including Jordan almonds, candy-coated in a thick hard shell, and in pastel colors.
On more than one occasion, I ate a box or two of those, so many that I had painful bellyaches and worse. It may not have been cyanide, but it was an instructive childhood lesson in "too much of a good thing".
It's scary to think how much knowledge of poisons was in our home with my father's profession, and mother's hobby of murder mysteries. When the 1982 adulteration scandal hit the news, I honestly had mixed feelings about the message it sent to consumers.
Like you, I more than once ate a large amount of Jordan almonds, both times after grabbing bags left on tables after a wedding. I'm 45, but the Tylenol tampering was still alive and well in my conscious even as a teenager, and to this day. I still check the safety seal and will bring anything back to the store if it's more than a few dollars, if the seal looks broken.
kens 40 minutes ago [-]
Does anyone else still worry about cyanide when finding a grape with a puncture?
> The seeds are also mentioned as having cancer-healing properties.
Click on the "Health benefits" link to get many more suggestions of their cancer curing properties. One person was consuming them every hour and started to have difficulty breathing. IMHO, Amazon probably shouldn't be helping to spread this kind of misinformation.
felipemesquita 2 hours ago [-]
In NileRed’s video “Does cyanide actually smell like almonds?”[0] he purchases some bitter almonds to measure the amount of cyanide in them. He is also worried about the baseless health benefits claims.
I love that channel. Especially turning (I believe) nitrile gloves into hot sauce. Some of the chemistry he performs, I would never think of even existing. It's like people that say margarine is one molecule away from plastic, without understanding that all of chemistry works like that.
yard2010 2 hours ago [-]
Interesting topic indeed but I have to say - the writing style completely nailed it! I love the humor and the figurative language. Great delivery.
A_D_E_P_T 32 minutes ago [-]
Good post. I'm reminded of this blog, which was really interesting while it lasted: https://naturespoisons.com/
declan_roberts 2 hours ago [-]
I live in a rural area and I'm surprised at how well grazing animals intuitively avoid these poisonous plants.
I see goats grazing in fields with hemlock. They'll give the hemlock a sniff and then avoid it while greedily eating everything else around it.
neuroelectron 2 hours ago [-]
An interesting article, but tell me, is it prounounced cherry laurel or cherry yanny?
11235813213455 4 hours ago [-]
Cigarettes contain a decent quantity of cyanide
stronglikedan 3 hours ago [-]
that's just so they can claim to be somewhat healthy /s
cwmoore 2 hours ago [-]
so the tar perfectly mediates the balance of polonium and cyanide
memhole 4 hours ago [-]
Hope the author picks up their blog again. I enjoyed the chickens article too.
lisabdunlap 2 hours ago [-]
phenomenal writing style, cant wait for the next one to drop. What's the natural next topic after chickens and cyanide
didgeoridoo 4 hours ago [-]
“Much literature has historically claimed that hydrogen cyanide smells of almonds or bitter almonds. However, there has been considerable confusion and disagreement over this, because the smell of household almond essence is due to benzaldehyde, which is released along with hydrogen cyanide from the breakdown of amygdalin present in some plant seeds, and thus is often mistaken for it.[12][13] In an experiment to test what hydrogen cyanide smells like, the chemistry Youtuber NileRed described the smell as "not at all like an almond" but like "weak bleach or chlorine" or "swimming pools".[14]”
Nigel has a whole series of edible chem runs. The pop rocks one is pretty good. His schtick is that he orders ridiculous equipment for all his videos.
He's worth a watch.
AStonesThrow 2 hours ago [-]
It's common to say that sulfur/natural gas smells "like rotten eggs" but I've probably not smelled a rotten egg in isolation for 40 years. But since I'm familiar with sulfur-type smells I could probably figure it out. I expect a future of bad and rotten eggs in our supermarkets...
HeyLaughingBoy 2 hours ago [-]
I'm familiar with the smells of sulfur (at least memories from decades ago), natural gas additives (mercaptan) and having chickens that like to lay in random hidden places, rotten eggs.
I don't think that there's much overlap in the scent profiles. Maybe a diluted rotten egg is similar to that smell of making black powder as a child, but not much.
eszed 46 minutes ago [-]
> making black powder as a child
Storytime, please?
3 hours ago [-]
rickandmortyy 1 minutes ago [-]
[dead]
Rendered at 22:09:08 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
A child could die with 5-6 whole bitter almonds, but they are really, really bitter so it's not that easy to accidentally do that.
On more than one occasion, I ate a box or two of those, so many that I had painful bellyaches and worse. It may not have been cyanide, but it was an instructive childhood lesson in "too much of a good thing".
It's scary to think how much knowledge of poisons was in our home with my father's profession, and mother's hobby of murder mysteries. When the 1982 adulteration scandal hit the news, I honestly had mixed feelings about the message it sent to consumers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tylenol_murders
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Chilean_grape_scare
https://www.amazon.com/Apricot-California-Pesticide-Herbicid...
The AI-generated summary of reviews ends with:
> The seeds are also mentioned as having cancer-healing properties.
Click on the "Health benefits" link to get many more suggestions of their cancer curing properties. One person was consuming them every hour and started to have difficulty breathing. IMHO, Amazon probably shouldn't be helping to spread this kind of misinformation.
[0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYagO-nup6c
I see goats grazing in fields with hemlock. They'll give the hemlock a sniff and then avoid it while greedily eating everything else around it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_cyanide
Nigel has a whole series of edible chem runs. The pop rocks one is pretty good. His schtick is that he orders ridiculous equipment for all his videos.
He's worth a watch.
I don't think that there's much overlap in the scent profiles. Maybe a diluted rotten egg is similar to that smell of making black powder as a child, but not much.
Storytime, please?