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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Apricot kernels

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  • From: Ginda Fisher <list@ginda.us>
  • To: "Martha L. Davis" <martha_davis@earthlink.net>, North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Apricot kernels
  • Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2008 22:54:27 -0500


On Dec 4, 2008, at 1:02 PM, Martha L. Davis wrote:

Stephan,

"As your friendly neighborhood biochemist" How do you suggest I test apricot kernels for low amigdalyn levels? I am grafting a variety of types, some of which are known to be sweet pit and some bitter and some unknown. I am interested in using sweet ones as nuts, but certainly not interested in cyanide poisoning. I know that it is possible to use heat to denature the enzyme that converts the precursor to the poison, when done on bitter pits one gets a sort of solid almond flavoring not a nut in the munchie sense, but it seems likely that that processing method isn't used on the sweet pit ones and isn't needed. Any ideas?

Martha


Maybe this is a naive question, but wouldn't you be able to tell which are "sweet" by tasting them? I didn't think apricot kernels were so toxic that tasting one carefully would be harmful.

Ginda




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