Cyanide from the kernels

Cyanide from the kernels: how soon does it show?

Minutes to a few hours, as the glycoside is hydrolysed in the gut.

How does it run?

Headache, dizziness, a racing heart, then confusion, convulsions, and respiratory arrest; cyanide blocks cytochrome oxidase and the cells cannot use oxygen. A few dozen bitter apricot kernels have killed adults, and “laetrile,” the amygdalin sold against cancer, has poisoned its users.

What is done for it?

Hydroxocobalamin, which binds cyanide as cyanocobalamin; oxygen; sodium thiosulfate.

Historical and descriptive, not medical advice. In a poisoning, call a poison centre or emergency services.

Which substances in the database cause it?

B

PlantBlackthornSloe Prunus spinosa. A thorny hedgerow shrub bearing small, bitter, blue-black plums, sloes, after the first frost.

C

PlantChokecherryChoke cherry; Prunus virginiana of Linnaeus; Prunus obovata of Bigelow and Cerasus virginiana of De Candolle; Prunus demissa in the West; Padus virginiana in some modern papers Prunus virginiana, the chokecherry of North America: a tall shrub or small tree of forest margins, fence-rows, and highways, with racemes of white flowers and a fruit that ripens from bright red to almost black and furs the mouth until it is fully ripe.Caution