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  • From: Melissa Kacalanos <mijwiz@yahoo.com>
  • To: nafex mailing list at ibiblio <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [nafex] [nafex ibiblio list] Apricot kernels
  • Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2012 07:24:20 -0800 (PST)

Now that I'm googling apricot kernels, I'm finding lots of vendors (including
Americans) selling ordinary, bitter, poisonous apricot kernels as if they
were a health food. That may have been the case with these Pakistani imports,
with someone trying to make money selling what's otherwise a useless
agricultural waste product. There's much less regulation and enforcement of
this sort of thing than we think there is.


However, there are some cultivars of apricot that do lack the genes that
would enable them to make cyanide. Kernels from these cultivars are safe and
delicious. I see 'Harcot' listed as one of these sweet-pit varieties, so they
should be safe to eat in quantity. I'm having trouble finding a more complete
listing of sweet-pit apricot cultivars, though. I see mention online that
these have sweet pits: 'Chinese,' 'Hunza,' 'Robada,' 'Montrose,' 'Canadian
White Blenheim'... There must be a list online somewhere, but I'm not finding
it.

Melissa


-----Original Message-----
From: David Consolvo
Sent: Monday, January 16, 2012 6:17 AM
To: nafex ibiblio mailing list
Subject: [nafex ibiblio list] Apricot kernels

I find that kernels of the apricot "Harcot" are delicious, very almond-like.
I limit
myself to five at a time, though, since apricot kernels have cyanide.

Wikipedia says that despite being used/eaten in central Asia and around the
Mediterranian:

"In 1993, the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets tested
the
cyanide content of two 220 gram (8oz) packages of apricot kernels that were
imported from Pakistan which were being sold in health-food stores as a
snack.
The results showed that each package, if consumed entirely, contained at
least
double the minimum lethal dosage of cyanide for an adult human. The apricot
pits
were recalled and removed from stores.[3] In spite of this, there were no
USA
deaths and only one serious toxicity from apricot kernels reported from 1979
to
1998.[4] On average, an apricot kernel contains about 0.5 mg of cyanide."

~David Consolvo
Hungrytown, Virginia
>From fruitopia@firstva.com Mon Jan 16 11:38:51 2012
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By the way, cyanide, while potentially acutely lethal, has little danger in
small
amounts over the long term. It is not known to cause cancer like tiny
amounts of
carcinogens can, and it does not accumulate in the body like some toxic
metals do.
There have been health problems found with chronic exposure at industrial
jobs
when breathing cyanide, but that's probably quite a heavy exposure. And
there
have been chronic health problems found with high cassava diet, theorized to
possibly to be related the cyanide in cassava, but then people who live on
cassava
tend to have lots of other dietary problems. But I don't worry about eating
small
amounts of apricot kernels over the long term.

Thanks to Melissa for her internet research, and to Chiranjit for his many
contributions over the years from a south Asian perspective. We don't get
enough
info from outside the "N.A." portion of NAFEX.

~David Consolvo, MD
Hungrytown, Virginia


---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: Melissa Kacalanos <mijwiz@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: Melissa Kacalanos <mijwiz@yahoo.com>,nafex mailing list at ibiblio
<nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2012 07:24:20 -0800 (PST)

>Now that I'm googling apricot kernels, I'm finding lots of vendors
>(including
Americans) selling ordinary, bitter, poisonous apricot kernels as if they
were a
health food. That may have been the case with these Pakistani imports, with
someone trying to make money selling what's otherwise a useless agricultural
waste product. There's much less regulation and enforcement of this sort of
thing
than we think there is.
>
>
>However, there are some cultivars of apricot that do lack the genes that
>would
enable them to make cyanide. Kernels from these cultivars are safe and
delicious. I
see 'Harcot' listed as one of these sweet-pit varieties, so they should be
safe to eat
in quantity. I'm having trouble finding a more complete listing of sweet-pit
apricot
cultivars, though. I see mention online that these have sweet pits:
'Chinese,'
'Hunza,' 'Robada,' 'Montrose,' 'Canadian White Blenheim'... There must be a
list
online somewhere, but I'm not finding it.
>
>Melissa
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: David Consolvo
>Sent: Monday, January 16, 2012 6:17 AM
>To: nafex ibiblio mailing list
>Subject: [nafex ibiblio list] Apricot kernels
>
>I find that kernels of the apricot "Harcot" are delicious, very almond-like.
>I limit
>myself to five at a time, though, since apricot kernels have cyanide.
>
>Wikipedia says that despite being used/eaten in central Asia and around the
>Mediterranian:
>
>"In 1993, the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets tested
>the
>cyanide content of two 220 gram (8oz) packages of apricot kernels that were
>imported from Pakistan which were being sold in health-food stores as a
>snack.
>The results showed that each package, if consumed entirely, contained at
>least
>double the minimum lethal dosage of cyanide for an adult human. The apricot
>pits
>were recalled and removed from stores.[3] In spite of this, there were no
>USA
>deaths and only one serious toxicity from apricot kernels reported from 1979
>to
>1998.[4] On average, an apricot kernel contains about 0.5 mg of cyanide."
>
>~David Consolvo
>Hungrytown, Virginia
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