Re: Apple seeds are toxic! Don't juicer the seeds

Are you juicing the seeds also?

It's true; some luscious and nutritious fruits have poisonous seeds.
For instance, apple seeds are poisonous. According to the American Medical Association's Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants, eating too many apple seeds can be fatal. The toxin in them is cyanogenic glycoside a.k.a. cyanide.


What is a lethal dose?
Apple seeds from a single apple that are swallowed whole or chewed and eaten in such small quantities are harmless. A single case of fatal cyanide poisoning has been documented in an adult who chewed and swallowed a cup of apple seeds. Why? Unknown!

Since the cyanogenic glycosides in apple seeds must be hydrolyzed in the gastro enteric tract before cyanide is released, several hours may elapse before symptoms appear. Symptoms may include abdominal pain, vomiting, lethargy and profuse sweating.

Cyanosis is not inevitable. In severe intoxications, coma develops and may be accompanied by titanic convulsions, muscle flaccidity and incontinence. Conscious patients may require only gastric lavage (stomach pumped) to recover completely.

Children will be affected by a smaller amount of apple seeds than adults. According to Shirley Corriher's book, CookWise, 15 apricot kernels, which also contain cyanide, can kill a child. Of course, it is best not to consume any apple seeds or apricot kernels. If you are juicing apples or cooking apples to make apple butter, it would be prudent to remove the seed pocket first.

Other bad seeds
Apple seeds – black seeds inside core pocket
Apricot kernels – the kernel inside the pit is poisonous
Cherries – the stone
Nectarine pits – kernel inside the pit
Peach pits – kernel inside the pit
Plums – the kernel inside the pit

Source: AMA Handbook of Poisonous & Injurious Plants by Dr. K. F. Lampe & M. A. McCann, Chicago, IL 1985.

http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/greenline/i1250_384.html


Also here:

http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/apples.asp

Bad Seed

Claim: Apple seeds contain a cyanide compound.

Status: True.

Origins: When we think of dangers lurking in our food, we tend to concentrate on the threats posed by chemical additives or by improper and careless handling. Yet the truth is that we routinely come into contact with naturally occurring poisons in a number of the fruits we ingest.

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 Apple 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 thegrim
Additional Information:

# Facts About Cyanide
(Centers for Disease Control)

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/cyanide/basics/facts.asp