Or they are found in parts of the fruit, say, that we normally don't eat - the seeds of the apple, the pit of the peach. Jones, points out that "There are now sufficient examples of plant defense by cyanogenesis for us to conclude that cyanogenesis is an important system of chemical defense in plants." He then reviews an astonishing variety of food plants that contain these precursor poisons, including wheat, barley, oats, rye, French beans, kidney beans, lima beans, apples, peaches, plums, apricots, cherries, almonds, Macadamia nuts, quince, papaya, passion fruit, bamboo shoots, cassava root, taro root and more.Īs Jones notes, in most cases we are eating plants in which the cyanides remain locked up by the surrounding sugars. After the Texas cattle story appeared, the scientist and blogger Mary Mangan sent me a link to a 1998 article in the journal Phytochemistry titled " Why Are So Many Food Plants Cyanogenic"? How many plant species hold this potential? Thousands. Under stress, though, the cyanide-sugar bond can break and the poison can be released. Basically this tells us that the cyanide is bound to - neatly locked up by - sugars in the plant.
The stored forms of cyanide in plants are called cyanogenic glycosides. The plants store cyanides in an inactive form but they can release them under threat or stress. Why? Most scientists believe that plants developed this chemistry as a way of fending off predators, from insects to grazers. We just capitalized on an invention of nature itself, a chemistry shared by numerous plant species including some grasses. The military symbol for hydrogen cyanide is AK.īut don't let that fool you into thinking that cyanides are a human invention. And while I earlier mocked the anti-GM activist comparing Texas grass to chemical weaponry, both hydrogen cyanide and cyanogen chloride do have military designations. Thus we have the gases hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and cyanogen chloride (CNCl) and the salts - sodium cyanide (NaCN), potassium cyanide (KCN). Cyanides are natural joiners, attaching to other chemicals with enthusiasm. The foundation of any cyanide is a a cyano group - basically a carbon atom tripled bonded to a nitrogen atom (with the chemical symbol CN). Prussic acid is an old-time term for hydrogen cyanide (derived from hydrocyanic acid), dating back to some 18th century chemistry experiments in which a deep blue pigment used by artists, called Prussian Blue, was mixed with acid to generate the poison. The veterinarian who autopsied the animals, called itprussic acid poisoning. Hydrogen cyanide was found both in the cow's bodies and in the grass itself. There's no debate over the poison that killed Mr.
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